Lineage IV: Nephalem
by writerchic16
Summary: An unwelcome visitor crashes Fiona and Molly's weekend in New York with Rachel and Melinda. Despite the questionable source, Fiona must work with Bricriu and rescue her father's soul.
1. Chapter 1

**Lineage IV: Nephalem**

Summary: An unwelcome visitor crashes Fiona and Molly's weekend in New York with Rachel and Melinda. Despite the questionable source, Fiona must work with Bricriu and rescue her father's soul.

A/N: I can't help it – when I've invested so much in a fanfic series, I always return to it at some point. The characters start to feel like my own and I miss them after a while. I began this particular story over a year ago, when I first had the idea. Since then I would add a few pages between original projects, so...it's a little long. And frankly I didn't know how it would end until midway through.

That said, this _might_ be the last Lineage story. Maybe. Let's just say it _can_ be the finale if I don't decide to continue it.

Who am I kidding? I'll add another story eventually.

* * *

_Many creatures I've encountered are pure evil. The bad can seem overwhelming sometimes, but when I think about past experiences, I've also seen a lot of good. This makes me wonder – if there are demons, are there angels? I'm still not sure what to call the man who told me about Gabe's illness. Maybe I've met one and didn't even know it._

_Keeping all this straight can get confusing. How do ghosts fit in? Is it possible for my dad to become an angel, and if he can, why hasn't he yet? Is he choosing to be a ghost to protect to his family? I'd like to find out how it all works. If ghosts, demons and angels all exist, they have to be connected._

_Don't they?_

"I still think we should use magic to get there." Fiona Phillips stood in her living room, taking stock of the luggage she and her mom were bringing to New York. For a four-day trip, they'd packed two suitcases – each. At least Fiona's second could be a carry-on. "We'd save on baggage fees. And I'm really not looking forward to the five-hour flight."

Molly gave her a warning glance. "Don't start, Fi. You know very well why we're not using magic. For one, I doubt we're strong enough to transport both of us across the country. And two, we traumatized your poor aunt Rachel after our _last_ visit. Telling her and Melinda we're witches can wait until our next girls weekend. If we tell them at all."

"Not telling them gets my vote," Jack said from over by the doorway. "The less people who know I'm a freak, the better." He stood waiting with the car keys in his hand, ready to drive them to the airport.

Fiona smirked at him. "Come on Jack, people know you're a freak just by looking at you."

"Is that so? Fine, lug your own bag through the airport."

"Who needs you?" Fiona retorted, waving a hand towards her carry-on. It tilted forward and rolled on its wheels across the room towards her. "See? I've been practicing."

Jack only rolled his eyes. "Right, good luck getting a self-rolling suitcase past security."

Meanwhile, Molly looked frustrated. "Hey! When did you learn control like that? I always have to say the spell out loud." She then shook her head in disbelief. "Thank goodness we're going on vacation. I think we could all use a weekend without magic or anything witch-related."

"I think it's unavoidable, Mom," Jack said, resignation in his voice. "You told Fi not to talk about demons when we went to visit the grandparents, and look how well that turned out."

While Fi suppressed a chuckle, Molly groaned. "Good point," she grumbled.

Fiona considered their argument against telling their extended family the truth. Even though she wanted to let her aunts in on the secret, her mom was right about Rachel's fragile mental state. Rachel called Fiona every week now to check in. They never spoke about the roof incident directly, but Rick's twin sister worried about her niece even more than she had before. Learning about witchcraft in her family might push the cynical attorney over the edge. "I promise I won't tell Aunt Rachel," Fiona said, shocking her mother and Jack. "You guys are right – she doesn't need to know yet. Telling her now would only upset her."

A relieved smile on her face, Molly put her arm around Fiona's shoulders. "Thanks, baby. You're really growing up. Even if you and your brother still tease each other all the time."

"Sorry, but I don't think we'll ever outgrow that one," Jack joked.

A knock sounded at the door as the Bells arrived. Clu and Carey had their own travel bags with them. Since this would be Clu's first weekend home from college for the summer, the guys convinced the parents to let them house sit while Fiona and Molly went on their so-called "girls' weekend." Melinda was in New York starring in an off-Broadway play, a life-long dream of hers, so her sister-in-law and niece decided to show their support. Rachel then suggested a female bonding weekend of plays, shopping and indulgent meals at her favorite expensive restaurants. Molly and the aunts decided it would also be Fiona's (very) early Christmas present that year.

As for Jack, he didn't mind staying home by himself _at all_. He even went a step further and invited the Bell brothers to stay for the weekend. Ned and Irene strongly opposed this, but since their sons were technically adults eighteen and over, they grudgingly allowed it. They also planned to stop by the house _frequently_. If the boys insisted on throwing a party, or 'small gathering' as Clu liked to call it, they would find out. And there'd be hell to pay if the guys disturbed the neighbors.

No one spoke about the underlying layer of tension attached to this landmark weekend. They were a little paranoid about the Phillips-Bell clan splitting up for the first time since magic entered their lives. Fiona, Jack and Molly felt it the strongest. What if something _bad_ happened while their family was scattered across the country?

Anxiety grew in Fiona's chest as everyone started to say good-bye. When she hugged Irene a little too tight, Irene raised an eyebrow at her honorary niece. "Are you okay, Fi? I'm sure you'll have a great time. Part of me wishes I was going with you."

"Hey, we invited you," Fiona reminded her. Irene had declined early on, insisting the weekend was about family and Fiona spending time with Rick's sisters. At the blonde's insistent look, Fiona sighed. "Okay, I guess I'm just…thinking about the last time we went to New York, and everything. For some reason I don't like the idea of us all splitting up."

Irene nodded in understanding. "Right there with you, hon. But we have to get past it or we'll all have to go everywhere together, for the rest of our lives. We've managed it so far but it's really not healthy."

Fiona relaxed at the joke and let out a genuine laugh. "Thanks, Mrs. B."

They turned around to find Ned and Molly giving the guys one last lecture. "I'm warning the three of you right now," Ned ordered in his scary "ex-biker" voice. "This place better look exactly the same when Molly and Fiona get back. _Clean up after yourselves._ If I hear that you left any laundry or dishes for Molly to do, I'm sending your butts back over here to clean this house from top to bottom."

Clu, Carey and Jack mock-saluted in unison. "Sir, yes sir!"

"God help us all," Ned muttered while the women broke out into laughter.

"Don't worry about Jack, Mrs. P," Clu insisted, giving his best friend a teasing glance. "We'll take good care of him. You know, we'll make sure he eats his vegetables, cleans his room, all that stuff."

Jack chuckled. "_You_ don't eat your vegetables. Or clean your room."

"That's not the issue here, is it?"

"You're all forgetting I've lived in my own apartment for almost a month now," Carey added. "If these two get out of hand, there will be a real adult around to keep things under control. Plus, you know, if anything happens, Super Jack can help."

Irene gave her oldest son a confused glance. "'Super Jack'?"

"Well yeah, you know, 'cause he has powers like a superhero. That's bound to come in handy."

"Oh no you don't," Molly said, holding up her hands. "I thought it was an understood rule that no witchcraft happens in this house while I'm gone. Frankly I'm surprised that would be an issue knowing how Jack feels about magic."

Jack glared at Carey. "It's not, Mom. I'm looking forward to a magic-free weekend."

"Me too," Molly agreed. Finally she picked up one of her suitcases. "Okay, let's move out."

Jack and Mr. B were going to the airport too, so as they carried some bags out to the car, Fiona reached for her last suitcase. She paused when an idea hit her. Since this was going to be a "magic-free weekend," it couldn't hurt to indulge a little before she left.

So, as Carey and Clu stared with wide eyes, she made the suitcase roll on its own towards the car.

* * *

The uneasiness in Fi's chest faded almost as soon as she saw her aunts again. After sleeping through the flight, she had plenty of energy to catch up with Rachel and Melinda. She and Molly told them all about her travels, leaving out anything magical, during the cab ride from the airport to Rachel's condo. They all had a snack while Melinda got ready for her performance that night, which they were all attending. Fiona would have seen any play featuring her aunt, but she looked forward to this one since it included a bunch of classic rock songs. She'd grown up on it thanks to her mom.

By the end of the night she was full on Japanese food and belting out The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" with her family. "I loved that play, Aunt Melinda!" she said for the second or third time. They'd all crashed when they returned to the condo, the four of them sprawled across Rachel's living room. "And you were awesome! Can we go again tomorrow?"

Melinda blushed and leaned over to wrap her niece in yet another bone-crushing hug. "Of course you can! There's a two 'o clock show tomorrow, but I'm sure you want to do a million other things while you're here."

"That's her nice way of saying she doesn't want us to come back," Molly teased. "Or just me, since I took some of her spotlight after the show. I'm _so_ sorry, Melinda."

Rachel let out a loud chuckle. "Hazards of being famous, Mol. Don't apologize – I thought it was funny."

"Stop that, will you? I feel bad enough," Molly said, though she smiled while she protested.

Melinda wasn't upset. "Hey, Rachel's right, it was funny! You can't help it if, and everyone in the cast was excited to meet you. As another bonus, more people asked for my autograph because I hung out with you – they thought I was some famous actress!"

Fiona couldn't stop laughing. It was so nice to _relax_ without her usual worries. While they'd destroyed the demon that killed her father, she now had to contend with powers that didn't always do what she wanted. She still made things happen without meaning to sometimes. There'd been several close calls both on the road and after the tour ended a couple weeks ago. She was coming around to the idea of a magic-free weekend, but she hoped her abilities complied. It would be tough to explain vanishing into thin air.

She wasn't the only one on her "best behavior" either. Molly's power tended to be even more unpredictable than her children's combined.

The women chatted some more, talking about the play and sharing even more stories. Finally Melinda wanted to call her husband and daughters before going to bed. She'd been staying in Rachel's spare room while she did the play, but she insisted on taking the fold-out couch so Fiona and Molly could share the room. Out of consideration, Fiona, Molly and Rachel started to clean up the living room while Melinda made the call.

"Tell Maggie and Miranda I said hi!" Fi called. After Melinda assured her she would, Fiona commented, "I miss my little cousins. It's been over a year since I've seen them. We talk on my site all the time, but it's not the same."

Rachel became solemn at the mention of Fiona's website. "Hey, uh, speaking of your website, and…the stuff on it. I've been meaning to tell you both that Melinda still doesn't know about what happened the last time you were here. Mostly because I'm still trying to figure it out myself. In case you thought she already knew, well, she doesn't."

"Do you think we should tell her?" Molly asked, exchanging a nervous glance with her daughter.

Rachel seemed flustered just from speaking about the topic. "Oh, don't ask me. It's not my story to tell." She looked towards her niece. "Frankly, I'm a little surprised you haven't brought it up yet. For the longest time you wanted me to believe some…creature, thing…pushed you off. I expected you to start up again at the airport, but instead, you haven't mentioned it or anything else other-worldly since you got here. I've been trying to figure it out but I can't pinpoint it. You've changed, Fiona. You too Molly. I have no idea how, but there's…something."

Stunned, Fiona took a minute to form a response. Did her aunt sense their magic without realizing it? Fiona's father had a sensitivity to the paranormal, so maybe his twin sister shared it on a subconscious level. "Mom was just saying how I've grown up," Fiona said, trying to brush off her aunt's concern. "I guess I needed a break from all that. And I didn't want to upset you. It was a tough day for everyone, not just me."

"That's true, but I'd say you got the worst of it," Rachel argued. "Fi, you went through a terrible experience. Don't bottle up everything inside just because I might not like what you say."

It was on the tip of Fiona's tongue to tell her about the demon, and witchcraft. Molly noticed because she sent Fiona warning glare. "Thanks, Aunt Rachel," Fiona replied instead. "Honestly, things have been crazy these last few months, and it's a lot to explain. But it's not something Mom and I want to get into right now."

The lawyer gave Fiona a scrutinizing once-over, clearly eager to get some answers. But, since Fiona was willing to compromise, she backed off. "Okay, you two win this round. But may I remind you what I do for a living. If you're hiding something, I'll find out eventually."

"I'm sure you will," Molly said, her tone cryptic. "I just hope you can accept what you find."

Rachel glanced from Molly, to Fiona, then back again. "You can't be serious. I love the both of you with all my heart. There's very little you could tell me that would drive me away."

"Good. Remember that," Fiona said, giving her aunt a grateful hug. They all returned to their regular conversation when Melinda walked back into the room.

* * *

The next morning, Fiona woke up much earlier than she normally would. Her family packed her weekend full of activities and she wanted to make time for all of them. That day's schedule included shopping, lunch, more shopping, then dinner at Aunt Rachel's favorite Italian restaurant. She also wanted to bring up Aunt Melinda's play again. Fi would love to attend a dress rehearsal and hang out with some of the cool actors she'd met the night before…

"I'm worried about them, Rachel. Don't tell me they're fine, I know you're worried too."

Fiona stopped in her tracks about a foot away from the condo's common area. On instinct she backed into the hallway to keep out of sight. Peeking around the wall, Fiona saw her aunts in the kitchen having breakfast. Rachel sat at the counter sipping her coffee, while Melinda stood at the stove scrambling eggs in a pan. Her mother was nowhere in sight, and she hadn't been in their room, so Molly must have gone to take her shower. Fi tuned her aunts out for the moment, and sure enough, she heard water running in the bathroom. She quickly refocused on the living room so she didn't miss a word her aunts said.

Rachel tapped her fingers on the side of her coffee mug, clearly debating how to handle her little sister's concern. "What makes you think something's wrong?" she finally asked. "They seem to be having a good time so far. Fiona really loved your play."

"Hey, don't try that lawyer stuff with me either," Melinda accused. "I know you better than anyone, so I can tell when you're deflecting. Come on, what gives? Are they in trouble?"

Caving under her sister's steady gaze, Rachel confessed, "I don't _know_! It's all so confusing. I haven't been this confused since…Ricky was alive."

Melinda dropped the spatula she'd been holding. It fell into the pan. "Is...is Fiona trying to get you to believe again? Did she ask you about a spellbook? Because I've been meaning to tell you that I gave it to Fiona the last time I saw her."

"No! What spellbook?" Rachel shook her head in amazement. "Never mind, one impossible thing at a time. What's strange is Fiona _hasn't_ mentioned anything strange! That's probably what you're picking up on. She's talked about it every phone conversation we've had since she was here a few months ago, and now, nothing! I almost wish she would talk about ghosts or demons just so she would sound like her old self. This 'new Fi' is throwing me for a loop."

Fiona put a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing. Imagine that – her efforts to seem normal had worked a little _too_ well!

"Maybe that's it then…hold on," Melinda paused and made eye contact with Rachel. "Did you say demons? When was Fiona talking about demons?"

Rachel glared at her sister. "Don't go there, Mel. I know you believed Ricky towards the end, but God, we've finally put that behind us. Fiona thought she encountered a demon but I'm sure there's an explanation for why she was pushed off that roof...oh, damn it."

As expected, Melinda rounded on her sister, the eggs burning in the pan. "I'm sorry, my niece was _pushed off a roof_? By a _demon_?"

"No! Were you not listening? It wasn't a demon!" Rachel stood up while Melinda forcefully turned the stove burner off. When they made eye contact again, Rachel lowered voice and continued, "But yes, Melinda. Fiona almost fell off the roof of a skyscraper." Melinda gasped and Rachel became emotional herself as she remembered. "She was…dangling there, holding on to the edge…oh, God. I've never been so terrified in my life. The door had locked behind her so Jack and I ran to the lower floor to stay with her. To torture ourselves, I guess, because there was nothing we could do. I really, truly thought I was about to witness my niece's death. Then all of a sudden someone was there pulling her up."

A hand over her heart, Melinda's voice trembled as she asked, "Who was it, someone else in the building?"

"That's another mystery. Jack and I would have seen someone go up, but there was no one." Rachel had to clear her throat before she continued. "Fiona said it was Ricky's ghost, Melinda. I don't know what to think, what to believe. All of this is so impossible and I didn't know how to make heads or tails of it. That's why it's confusing now. I'm thinking Fiona was so traumatized that she gave up the paranormal. It's the only explanation that makes sense."

As Melinda wrapped Rachel in a comforting hug, Fiona backed all the way down the hall to her temporary bedroom. Her mother had returned and was drying her hair. "Good morning, baby," she greeted after she turned off the hair dryer. "Ready for another exciting day?" She paused when she noticed her daughter's troubled expression. "What's wrong?"

"Aunt Rachel accidentally told Aunt Melinda about how I fell off the roof," Fiona answered without hesitation. She couldn't think of a reason not to tell her mother.

"Oh God. How did Melinda take it? Did you tell her everything?"

"They, uh, didn't know I was there. I sort of eavesdropped from the hallway." Fiona winced, realizing one reason she should have kept this info to herself. Her mother didn't reprimand her right away so she pushed forward."Then Aunt Rachel explained the whole story, or the pieces of it she put together. She thinks I'm not talking about the paranormal because_ I_ was traumatized by what happened. Meanwhile, the way she talked about it, I can tell _she's_ more haunted by it than I am."

Sympathy in her expression, Molly explained, "That's because she doesn't know what we know. We faced our demons, both literally and figuratively. She's still processing. I don't think she'll be able to move on until we tell her the truth."

Fiona paused, her eyebrow raised. "Wait, are _you_ suggesting we tell her about magic? After you warned me against it?"

"In my defense I didn't realize how much this affected Rachel. I think we need to make sure she…and Melinda, I guess…know before the end of the weekend." Molly tilted her head in consideration. "Should we tell her now, to get it over with, or put it off until Sunday so we can all enjoy our trip? Will they even be able enjoy it if they're so worried about us?"

Fiona laughed at her mother's perplexed expression. "Relax, Mom. Let's see how the day goes. Maybe an opportunity will present itself."

* * *

Since she didn't have to worry so much about her secret, Fiona could actually relax. She even confessed to her aunts about eavesdropping. She didn't get into the details, but she did explain a little about the demon. (Of course she didn't tell them that it killed their brother. She still didn't know if she could.) Both aunts reminded her to always be herself around them, which made Fiona love them even more than she already did. As much as she loved her mother and brother, they'd always told her to hold back.

Everyone seemed to breathe easier after that. The four women went out shopping for a few hours, but they had to drop Melinda off at the theater for her matinee. The others ended up staying again, so the group was running on empty by the time they returned to Rachel's condo close to five.

"I'm so tired," Fi whined, collapsing on Rachel's couch. "But I'm also hungry. If someone made me food and brought it to me, I'd be eternally grateful."

Her family laughed as they started to put together a snack. They couldn't eat a big meal since they had dinner reservations in a few hours. "I'll do it Fi, don't worry," Rachel offered. "I should've realized you're not much of a marathon shopper. You see, it takes years of experience to reach my level of expertise. We'll get in some more practice this weekend."

"She'll whip you into shape," Melinda joked. "By Sunday she'll have you shopping ten city blocks without breaking a sweat."

Everyone laughed as Molly commented, "You sound like you're speaking from…experience…" She trailed off and looked out Rachel's window. "Huh…"

Fi sat up a little so she could glance out the window too. "What are you looking at, Mom?" She paused, wondering if she should have been so quick to call out her mother's spacey expression. It was possible that Molly had a psychic vision and used the window as a cover.

Also turning towards the window, Rachel shrugged. "I don't see anything so it must have gone away. What was it, Molly?"

A small ball of light burst in through the window, passing right through the glass.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Suddenly wide awake, Fiona leaped to her feet and ran to stand in front of the closest relative. It happened to be Melinda. "Oh, no you don't!" Fiona yelled at the ball of light.

Even though she had no clue what it was, Molly followed her daughter's lead and stood in front of Rachel. "Fiona, what _is _that?"

Fiona ignored her mother while she threw her hands out to stop the spunkie. Thankful she remembered the spell from her last battle, she commanded, _"Congelo!"_ The ball of light froze less than a foot from her face, unable to move. Fiona didn't know how long the spell would last, so she kept her hands up, prepared to fire if Bricriu moved an inch. Then she realized he might not be able to speak in this condition. "We need to trap him! Do we have a jar or something?"

"Uh…here!" Despite the overwhelming situation, Melinda rose to the occasion and ran to the sink for the bottle of sparkling cider they'd polished off the night before. "It has a twist cap, will that hold it? Whatever _it_ is?"

While her focus was on Bricriu, Fiona almost laughed out of sheer amazement. She gave her aunt a _lot_ of credit for fast-thinking under pressure. "Perfect. Mom, can you do it? I'm afraid to move my hands."

"What am I doing, exactly?" Trembling from nerves, she took the empty bottle from Melinda, put the ball of light inside and screwed on the cap. "What _is_ this?"

"A Will 'O the Wisp, also called a spunkie. It's typically an evil spirit but this one leans more towards chaotic neutral. You've actually met it before even though you don't remember." Fiona slowly lowered her hands and took the trapped spunkie from her stunned mother, though she held on tight in case he unfroze. "I wonder why he's back."

"_Hold it!"_

They all turned to Rachel, who looked like she might be having a panic attack. "What the _hell_ just happened here? That is not an evil spirit, because they don't exist. More importantly, what does 'congelo' mean and how did it –"

Rachel's hysterical rant was cut short when Bricriu came back to life. He zipped up and down the bottle, fighting for his freedom, but Fiona refused to let go. _"Little Duck! This is not funny!"_

"Really? I think it's kind of funny," Fiona teased.

"Wait a sec," Molly interrupted. "How do we know an evil, talking ball of light? And why did it call you 'Little Duck'?"

While the adults freaked out, Fiona focused on her captive intruder. She didn't know how long Bricriu would stick around. She could calm her mother and aunts down later, after she got as much information as she could from the spunkie. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"Come on, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Bricriu whined. "I knew ye were a full-fledged witch now, but I didn't think that would make you so _hostile_."

"_I'm _hostile? Last time I ran into you, you set me and my mother on fire!"

"Don't be so dramatic. I left the two of you in a burning building, there's a difference!"

Her aunts and her mother were speechless by this point. Finally Melinda cleared her throat. "Uh, Fi, what the thing said…about you being a witch…you stopped it with magic? That was a spell?"

"Yes, Aunt Melinda. I'm a witch. So is Mom. It's a very, very long story," Fiona confessed. She glanced at Rachel and felt a pang of guilt for the look of utter fear and confusion on her aunt's face. Rachel seemed unsteady on her feet, like she might topple over if a strong wind blew through the apartment. "Uh, Aunt Rachel? Are you in there?" It occurred to her how ironic the question was considering the type of evil spirit she now held in her hands.

Molly gingerly patted her sister-in-law's shoulder. "I'm so sorry about this, Rachel. Do you want to go lie down? Or I can try to explain everything, but honestly I'm not even sure what's going on myself. It happens a lot more often these days." She sent her daughter a meaningful look. "It would help a lot if I at least knew what that thing was! And how it left me in a burning building when I don't even remember…oh, God. The fire."

"He's a spirit that possesses people and takes over their lives," Fi explained quietly. "He sort of…possessed you last year. Right before the Moffatts concert."

Fi didn't think it was possible, but Molly's eyes widened even more. "Oh my God! The Moffatts concert! I didn't remember a _second_ of that. At first I thought I'd blocked it out because of the sheer humiliation. Irene actually asked me if I'd been drinking." She sent the spunkie a murderous glare. "So what are we going to do with it? Can we blast it into oblivion?"

The ball of light shot up in the bottle, but he hit the cap andfloated back down. "My, someone's a trigger-happy witch, aren't we? Little Duck, will you please inform your mother it's not polite to 'blast' old friends? Especially when they're here with important information about your father's soul?"

The apartment became pin-drop quiet at the mention of Rick. "What information?" Fi demanded, her tone sharp and intimidating. Her family stared at her in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh nothing, just that one of the dark forces put a price on his soul. There are other details I could tell you, but well, I'd be more inclined to share if you _let me out of this accursed bottle_."

"Is my father really in trouble?" Fiona demanded. "Last time you were here, I let you stay because you said Mom was in danger, when she really wasn't. The only thing that ever put my mother or me in danger was you. Why should I believe a word you tell me?"

"But what if I'm telling ye the truth? Are ye willing to take the risk?"

Another silenced stretched on. Shaking from head to toe, Rachel reached out for Molly's arm. "I think I'll take you up on that offer to go lie down. You might have to help me to my room though, because my legs feel like jelly."

True to her word, she almost crashed into the couch as her sister-in-law guided her towards the hallway. Before she left, Molly stopped when she reached Melinda. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Melinda assured her with a weak smile. "Who do you think helped Rick investigate when a certain somebody was too stubborn to tag along? I'll give you that this is the most I've ever experienced at once, but…I'm not totally shocked. Actually, the most shocking aspect of this situation is _you_ wanting to blast an evil spirit to hell."

* * *

Molly sat in a chair next to her sister-in-law's bed, watching with unmasked concern as Rachel lied down on top of the comforter, her shoes still on. She didn't know what to say but felt she needed to say something. Rachel's world view had been shattered in a matter of minutes, and Molly was one of few people who could relate. "It's not that bad," she blurted.

At first Molly wasn't sure if Rachel heard her. Then the lawyer slowly turned to look at Molly. "What?" she asked. She sounded incredulous, exhausted and completely lost.

"Losing your mind," Molly clarified. "It's not as bad as you think it will be."

Rachel let out a short laugh that could have also been crying. "Is Fiona right about all this? Am I really supposed to believe she's a witch with real magical powers? That _you're_ a witch too?"

The accusation in Rachel's eyes brought back Molly's old instincts to deny everything. No, of course she wasn't a witch…no, magic wasn't real…no, she wasn't crazy. She almost slipped back into them like a comforting hug. Instead she looked around the room for a way to prove what she knew to be real. The folded-up cashmere blanket on the storage trunk at the foot of Rachel's bed gave Molly an idea. She held up both her hands towards it while bewildered Rachel stared at her, waiting for an explanation.

Rachel gasped when the blanket unfolded itself, stretching towards the ceiling before gently draping itself over the bed. It reached about an inch above Rachel's form before falling the rest of the way.

"Shoot," Molly muttered. "Fi keeps telling me I need to practice more. I should have been able to hold onto the blanket until it covered the bed." Molly didn't mention this to Rachel, but it was also one of the few times she'd tried this spell without saying the word out loud. She actually started to but felt awkward chanting the spell in front of Rachel...so she didn't. Honestly she was just relieved the blanket moved at all.

Still in a daze, Rachel assured her, "Don't be so hard on yourself. That was…wow…" She ran her hands over the blanket as if confirming it had moved on its own from the trunk to the bed. "Since you said you need to practice, I'm guessing these…powers…are a new development. That Rick never knew."

"Yes and no," Molly said, struggling to come up with the right words. "There's always been witchcraft in my family, I just closed my eyes to it until they were forced open. Everything happened shortly after our trip here. At first I was like you, and wanted to convince myself Fiona fell, or maybe something of _this_ world pushed her off. But she was right. A demon tried to kill my daughter, and would try again. We had to destroy it. I couldn't deny what I was as long as Fiona was in danger."

Rachel stayed quiet for almost a minute before she replied. "But you did destroy it, right? She's not in danger anymore? And why did evil target you in the first place, was Rick involved?"

Molly felt like she was telling a bed time story, particularly since Rachel stayed tucked in under the blanket. Her family's history certainly qualified as one. "Yes, we destroyed it, so we're safe from _that_ demon. But…as long as we embrace our power, we're never going to be truly safe. It's the price you have to pay. I think, while I always wanted to be normal, I also wanted to protect myself and my family. I kept my eyes closed because it was my main defense. Now…my children's lives will never be normal again."

"My God…" Rachel whispered, sympathy replacing the fear in her eyes. She seemed to be coming around after the ordeal she'd just experienced. "You said 'children.' Is Jack..." Rachel let the question trail off, the implication clear.

It was another complex question. Molly hesitated before answering, "The power in my family is stronger in women, but yes, Jack has some ability even if he doesn't fully accept it." She considered explaining about Jack's past life as a knight, but it felt like unnecessary information overload. Jack could have that conversation with his aunt later.

"Poor Jack," Rachel said with a laugh, knowing how her nephew viewed the paranormal. "How's he taking everything?"

"Better than expected, but he's still Jack. He didn't have much time to react and I think that worked in our favor."

They both chuckled this time. Rachel finally tossed off the blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Okay, I'm back, mostly. But I have two more questions, Molly. What _did_ Rick know about magic, about demons? Is…is that why he died? I know he died in car crash, but after today, I can't help thinking there's a connection."

Molly felt the anxiety and guilt like a punch straight to her gut. How could she tell Rachel she was absolutely right, that Rick had been killed by the same demon that went after Fiona? While they'd destroyed the demon, it was still earth-shattering news. Both Rachel and Melinda would have to learn that their brother had been taken by a force of evil, not a tragic car accident. "There is a connection, Rachel. But we should save this for another time. Right now I want to get back to my daughter and your sister, who are both dealing with an evil spirit trapped in a bottle."

"Oh God, yeah, let's go." As they raced to the door, Rachel asked, "So how does Fi know this thing anyway? Did it really leave you in a burning building?"

* * *

Molly and Rachel arrived to find the spunkie negotiating with Fi. The glowing bottle now rested on the kitchen island counter while Fi and Melinda stood on the living room side, flanking it like the typical good-cop bad-cop scenario. In this case Fi was the bad cop while Melinda stood there, attempting to follow along. Molly and Rachel interrupted another of the spunkie's pleas to be let out when they walked in from the hallway. "What's going on?" Molly asked as she went to her daughter's side. "Are you two okay?"

The spunkie rammed against the side of the bottle, causing it to tilt slightly before standing straight again. "_They're_ fine," he seethed. "I'm the one stuck in here while these two stare at me like I'm a makeshift lantern. Little Duck, I'm warning you – _let me go!"_

"See, I'm with Molly on this," Rachel said. Her face was still pale at the sight of the paranormal creature, but she did her best to sound casual. "Why _does_ it call Fiona 'Little Duck'? I'm curious."

Fiona grimaced at the embarrassing term. "He's not big on using given names. That's how I banished him the first time I met him, when he took over Jack's body. Anyone who knows it can use it to send him away. So I had some power over him even before we put him in the sparkling cider bottle."

Overloaded on new information, Molly sighed. "Wait, it was in Jack's body too? When did this happen? You're telling us everything as soon as we figure this out."

"Also, you know what I'm wondering?" Melinda said, glancing at the window. "How did it get in here if it can't go through a glass bottle? Presumably it would've flown in the window, and the window's closed."

Fi gave her aunt a smile of approval. "Funny, I was wondering the same thing."

Bricriu let out an impatient groan. "It's not so much the substance, if you must know. I did arrive through the closed window. It's the fact that you used a container with a cap. The intention to trap me, plus the combination of you and your mother's power, created this hellish prison. Now will you let me out since I was nice and answered your stupid question?"

"Not when you still haven't said any more about my father," Fi snapped. "Tell us everything you know, and I'll consider it."

Rachel raised an eyebrow at her teenage niece. "I'm impressed. Ever think about becoming a lawyer?"

Too distracted to accept the compliment, Fi moved closer to the bottle. "I mean it, spunkie. Spill it. You're the one who came here to tell me, remember?"

"Aye, I did," Bricriu admitted. "There is a force after your father's soul, Fiona."

"A demon?"

"In a way. What do you know about Nephalem?"

The answer made Fiona back up slightly, surprise and confusion evident on her face. "Not much," she confessed. "Aren't they angels?"

While her aunts and Molly gasped, Bricriu answered, "You're half wrong. They're angel-demon hybrids, untrustworthy scum of the spirit world. At least with an angel or a demon, or a trickster spirit such as myself, you know what you're getting. With these creatures you have no idea what side they're on until they decide to inform you. And in this case, I've definitely been informed."

"I wouldn't say I know what to expect when you show up," Fi retorted, a contemplative expression on her face.

Molly recognized it from the dozens of other times Fiona investigated a paranormal phenomenon. The existence of angels surprised her, but maybe it shouldn't have when she already believed in demons. Wouldn't it make more sense for light to balance the dark? Although, the way the spunkie was talking, these angels weren't all sweetness and light. "I don't understand," Molly said. "If these creatures are part angel, should they have some good in them?"

"Theoretically," Bricriu agreed. "But they're more like you humans, where they could be angelic or demonic depending on their mood. Though I'll admit I haven't found many humans who fall under the _angelic_ category."

Fi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, you want out of the bottle. We'll talk after you explain why these things are after my dad."

"Ye used to have a sense of humor, Little Duck. I think the power's gone straight to your head."

"_Why are Nephalem after my dad's soul?"_

"Fine! I don't know why, okay? I can only guess it's because many Nephalem consume souls to fuel their own energy, mostly the more demonic ones. Your father's spirit is extremely powerful so I'm sure he's very _appetizing_ in that circle, if ye get my drift."

The women became silent as they reacted to the new threat. Still annoyed with the spunkie, Fi demanded, "Why do you care about all this, what's in it for you? I fell for it last time when you said you were fed up with the dark side, but I'm on to you now. You don't do anything for anyone unless you get something from it."

"Cynical aren't we? But you're also correct. Will 'O the Wisps and Nephalem often run in the same circles. Let's just say it would be very beneficial for me if you witches eliminated the being that's after Rick Phillips' soul."

"So you know who it is then," Rachel realized. "You were talking in general before, but if getting rid of this thing helps you, there must be someone specific."

"I have some idea, yes, but I don't have a name yet. I've encountered several Nephalem over the past few centuries so it could be a number of them."

Fi scoffed. "Can't say I'm shocked to hear that. So now the question is, what do we do with you now? We still might need your help tracking down the right Nephalem. I've never dealt with them before so it will take a lot of research to find a specific creature."

"Hey, I believe the deal was you'd let me go!"

"I said we'd talk. We're talking now," Fiona retorted. "But yeah, I can't keep you in a bottle in my aunt's kitchen forever."

"I'm relieved to hear that. For one thing, it would be hell for resale," Rachel joked.

Fi laughed as she leaned in close to the bottle. "Okay, Br…uh, spunkie, here's the deal. I'll let you out of the bottle, and you can hang out here, but you are _forbidden_ from inhabiting anyone's body. That means me, my mom, my aunt Rachel and my aunt Melinda. The four of us are officially off-limits, deal? Mind you, if you break the deal, I'll banish you anyway."

"You drive a hard bargain, Fiona Phillips. Deal."

* * *

Back in Hope Springs, Jack debated with his new roommates about what they should order for dinner. It looked like Fiesta Taco would win for the second night in a row. Jack didn't mind since he didn't care whether they ordered Mexican, Chinese or Italian. He also didn't care much about the party the Bell brothers had planned for the next night. Clu and Carey discussed it non-stop when they weren't talking about food, but Jack already lost interest in the celebration. He just preferred hosting laid-back gatherings – not crazy parties where he'd have to worry about the cops showing up.

Something else bugged him too but he couldn't put his finger on it. He wanted to chalk it up to normal concern about his family flying across the country. They'd called him that morning, so he should've been able to brush off the unease in his stomach. At this rate he'd end up eating tortilla chips for dinner since he wouldn't be able to digest a taco.

Eventually the guys noticed his mental absence. They sat around the living room, watching television while they put together music for the party. Their combined collection of CDs had taken over the whole coffee table and overflowed into piles on the floor. Soon enough the conversation topic wound its way back from food to the task at hand. "I don't know why we're bothering with this, man," Clu whined. "We've got a professional guitar player right here. Let's bring in the Molly Phillips band – without Mrs. P, of course – and be done with it. You'll just have to take the lead vocals, bro."

"Oh yeah, that'll go over well when she gets back," Carey argued. "I'm not sure who I'm more afraid of in that scenario, Mom or Molly. Mom usually wins but Molly has that newfound ability to turn us into the animals of her choosing."

Clu's eyes widened. "Can she really do that? I thought their witch powers were more like, making stuff fly across the room, or making stuff explode. Which is still pretty terrifying."

"Fi was talking about it one day. I think it all depends on which spell they cast. They don't have actual 'superpowers.'" Carey glanced at Jack, who seemed to be staring into space. "Hey, uh, Earth to Jack? Feel free to jump in any time. I know you don't really practice witchcraft but you must know more about it than we do."

Jack tried to make himself focus on his present reality. "Huh? Sorry, I've been distracted all day today. I feel like I forgot something, but I know I didn't. It's like…when you make plans for something but you've completely forgotten what they were. Only I'm sure I didn't make any. And I think it has something to do with Mom and Fi."

The brothers gave him blank stares. "Yeah, you need to run that by us again," Carey said, while Clu nodded his agreement.

"In a nutshell? I'm very sure that I'm supposed to be somewhere else and I have no idea why."

The three were silent for a minute while they contemplated Jack's problem. Finally Clu snapped his fingers. "I got it! You're having a vision! Or you're about to have one!"

Jack and Carey exchanged bewildered glances, then replied in unison. _"What?"_

"No, it makes total sense! Fi said that's your family's strongest ability, right?" Clu insisted. "I know you've only seen flashes of your past life, which is awesome by the way, but it's possible you can see the future too. Maybe even the present – what's that called, clairvoyance, I think? Bottom line is you should seriously give your family a call."

"That's ridiculous. Mom and Fi called me this morning, they're fine." Still, even as Jack protested, Clu's theory made more and more sense.

Carey scoffed at Jack's response. "_That's_ ridiculous? In the last year you've had visions of a past life, discovered you're also part witch, and helped your family destroy a demon. I don't think there's much out of the realm of possibility anymore."

Jack tried to think of a reasonable argument, but when his friends stared him down, he groaned and got up from the couch. "_Fine._ I'm going to use the phone in the kitchen."

* * *

After Fiona let Bricriu out of the bottle, they all gathered around the kitchen to discuss strategy. Everyone stared when Fiona started to put together the sandwich she never got earlier. "What?" she asked around a mouthful of sliced American cheese. "If I stopped eating every time something weird happened, I'd never eat."

"You humans and your insatiable stomachs," Bricriu remarked. He hovered by Fiona around her eye level. The phenomenon of talking to an actual ball of light was slightly unsettling even for Fiona (especially since it didn't have a head or a mouth). She'd mostly seen him while he possessed one of her family members. "I always hate that when inhabiting a body," the spunkie continued. "Needing to consume food every few hours is so inconvenient."

Fiona chuckled and replied sarcastically, "Gee, I'm really sorry _you're_ inconvenienced while taking over _our_ bodies."

"Oh, it's not your fault ye can't help it. One of humanity's many natural flaws." The ball of light appeared to miss her sarcasm, but Fi suspected he only played dumb since he was fluent in it himself.

The aunts and Molly were rendered speechless by the unbelievable topic of conversation. Molly cleared her throat before steering the subject back to their main problem. "So, how do you even know Rick is in danger?" she asked Bricriu. "Does the spirit world have a classifieds section for soul kidnappers?"

Bricriu laughed. "Not exactly. You hear things through the supernatural grape vine. This piece of information reached my non-existent ears since I have a history with his family."

"I wish we could just speak to Daddy to confirm all this," Fiona said wistfully. "We've contacted him more often than ever over the last year. This would be so much easier if we could conjure up his spirit, like you did Mom, when you contacted Grandma Fiona."

Rachel held up her hands as she stepped away from the counter island. "Okay, I think I need to lie down again. This is way too much for me to handle all at once. Rick _died_ over a dozen years ago, but here you all are, talking about him like he's still _out there_ doing things. I was devastated when he died, but I always thought I could be comforted knowing he rested in peace. Now that's not even true!"

"Oh, Rach…" Melinda went over to hug her older sister tightly, her head on Rachel's shoulder. "I know it's hard, okay? I'm struggling with this too. But if he is out there, and he's in trouble, we have to do everything we can to help. Maybe _we'll_ even get to see him again."

Meanwhile Fiona and her mother also hugged, tears welling in Fiona's eyes. She was scared for her father too but she couldn't imagine how tough this must be for his sisters. Fiona dreaded telling them what really killed their brother. While she knew it needed to happen, she didn't mind putting it off until they'd sorted out this mess with the Nephalem. "We all want to help Daddy," Fiona said. "But first we need to figure out if he really needs our help. So far we just have the word of a spunkie who once set me and Mom on fire."

"For the last time, I did _not_ set ye on fire! I set the _building_ on fire!" Bricriu insisted.

"Yeah, about that," Molly interrupted, turning to her daughter. "When do I finally get to learn how and why that fire started? Or how you and this ball of light thing know each other?"

"I'm a _spunkie_, or a Will 'O the Wisp if you want to be formal. Really I'll take anything except 'ball of light' at this point. Well that, and me real name of course."

"Hold on, we're getting off-track here," Melinda interrupted. "I agree with Fi. We should focus on saving Rick's soul. When we sort out what to do there, the three of us can grill Fi as much as we want later."

Fi laughed. "Thanks, Aunt Melinda. I think."

The four women and the spunkie lapsed into silence while they considered their next step. "Well," Molly began. "I know Ma said we shouldn't use a spell to summon Rick's spirit, but isn't this a special case? He could be in more danger if we _don't_ contact him and ask what he needs us to do. His spirit could be gone forever, so he wouldn't be able to protect us anyway."

"God," Rachel muttered. "You said that with a straight face. We're all insane."

As she put an arm around her sister's shoulders, Melinda said, "Can you two really do that? Just say a spell and his spirit appears?"

Fi frowned, debating the right way to answer that question. It was an option but she didn't want to get her aunt's hopes up. "It's not that simple, Aunt Mel. I know we all want to see him but I worry about putting him at risk. If an evil being is after him, it might be watching us because we're his family and we happen to be together this weekend. I wonder if there's some protection spell we can cast on the apartment first."

"There probably is one in the spellbook," Bricriu informed her.

"It's too bad we don't have that with us," Molly said. "We could go through it and see what our options are. We've been practicing, but we don't have it all memorized. All we know are the simple ones we learned for battle."

Melinda let out a deep sigh. "I'm looking forward to the day when I'm _not_ shocked by new information every five minutes. What battle? And that spellbook I gave Fi, it really works? Can't say I'm too surprised by that one because I always had a feeling. Rick told me to pass it on to his children when they got older because they'd need it."

This time, Fi was surprised by her aunt's confession. "He told you to pass it on to me?"

"Well, you or Jack. You were just babies. He didn't know for sure which one would inherit his interest in the paranormal, if either of you. But he thought you'd be the one to keep it."

Molly nodded in agreement. "It makes sense. My grandmother told him about witchcraft in my family, so he probably knew the power was strongest in women."

"That reminds me. Grandma!" Fi exclaimed. "You know how she uses that travel spell whenever she visits us now? Maybe we can convince Jack to uh, 'send' the book over to us."

"I can't imagine he'd be thrilled by the idea," Rachel remarked.

Molly laughed. "No, and I'm not sure he could do it. Maybe…maybe _we_ could cast the spell from this end? If we combine our magic, it might – "

A sharp telephone ring pierced the apartment. They all jumped slightly, reminded that the outside world existed. Rachel gladly raced over to the base in her living room and picked it up, clearly grateful for the distraction. "Hello? Oh, hi Jack. We were just talking about you. No, nothing bad. Um…things are a little busy right now, do you need anything?" She walked over to where Molly sat at the kitchen island and handed her the cordless phone. "Your son wants to ask you a question."

"Hi baby, is everything okay?" Molly asked, the phone to her ear. "You want to know if _we're_ okay? Why? Did you have a vision?" A second passed, then she put the phone on speaker. "Okay, Jack, I put you on speaker. It will be easier to explain some of what's happening."

"_Mom! Isn't Aunt Rachel still there? Why would you ask me about...a certain thing that's very difficult to explain?"_

"Cat's out of the bag, bro," Fiona said with a laugh. "And it wasn't my fault either. We're in the middle of a weird situation right now."

"Hi Jack! Love you!" Melinda called out.

"Tell Jack I said hi too," Bricriu joked, causing Fi to send him a warning glare. "What? It's been a while since we've seen each other."

"_Who's voice was that? What'd they say?"_

"Uh, it was the TV," Molly lied. "Um, Jack, we were just wondering if you might possibly do us a very big favor that may involve magic."

"_I thought you said no witchcraft while you were gone."_

The others chuckled while Molly rolled her eyes. "Okay, yeah, I did, but this is an emergency. Fi and I need you to…um, transport the spellbook to us. Pretty please?"

There was a long silence before Jack replied. _"What emergency? Is it a minor emergency or a 'battling the forces of darkness' kind of emergency?"_

"Somewhere in between," Molly confessed. "We'll tell you the details if we need your help. But for now we just need to look up information in the book."

"_Can't I just read it to you?"_

"Not exactly since we don't know which specific spells we need. If you really don't want to attempt it, you can call your grandmother and I'm sure she'll be happy to pop over."

A groan sounded through the phone speaker. _"Both great options. I guess I'll call grandma."_ Another beat passed, then he asked, _"Um, Aunt Rachel? How are you holding up?"_

Rachel leaned in closer to the phone. "Hi Jack. I think I've gone crazy, but I'll be okay."

"_Yeah, that sounds about right."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Okay, I found it, not that it was too difficult." Jack carried his sister's spellbook into the kitchen and dropped it unceremoniously on the table. "She keeps this thing on her desk at all times now. I swear she consults it more than her laptop these days."

Carey and Clu walked over from the counter island, where they'd been snacking on some chips. Even though they'd decided on Mexican for dinner, they all realized it was only four in the afternoon, way too early to place an order. As they took seats at the table, Carey said, "No offense, but this book gives me the creeps. Magic is cool and all, but after Fi told everyone how she accidentally conjured a dragon, I can't say I trust it."

Jack chuckled. "It's hardly fair to blame the book when it was my sister's bright idea to cast the spell in the first place. Though, being honest, I won't mind sending it out of the house for a while."

"What are you doing with that book?"

The guys jumped when Irene entered through the kitchen door, a bag of groceries in her arms. She placed it on the island and turned toward the table. "Here I thought Molly was kidding when she said 'no witchcraft.' Jack, I'm surprised at you!"

"It's not my fault!" Jack held up his hands in defense, attempting to defuse Irene's wrath. Carey was right on the money before – Irene could be just as scary as Molly, if not scarier. "Trust me, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near this thing if Mom didn't ask me to! I called her earlier and she said she wanted me to 'send' it to her. Since I have no desire to cast any spells whatsoever, I called Grandma Kathleen. She'll be here in five minutes tops."

Irene let out a deep, calming breath. "Okay. Still weird, but okay." Panic returned a second later. "Why does Molly need the book? This was supposed to be her 'magic-free weekend.'"

Clu answered his mother this time. "Looks like that's a no-go, but Mrs. P wouldn't tell us the details, not even to Jack. We're kind of worried because she used the word 'emergency.' Apparently it's somewhere between a standard emergency and battling the forces of evil."

"God," Irene muttered. She stomped back over to the bag of groceries, filled with nothing but frozen meals. As she stocked the freezer for the guys she ranted, "This is going to be a regular thing, isn't it? You know, where sanity takes a vacation and we're thrown into this world of magic and demons and whatever the hell else? Now I know we were never exactly the Waltons or the Brady Bunch, but damn it, we were more normal than _this_."

As if on cue, Kathleen appeared on the other side of the kitchen, closer to the living room doorway. Jack, Clu and Carey jumped again even though they'd expected it. When Irene saw Kathleen, she sighed but put on a smile for her best friend's mother. "Hi, Kathleen. Jack told me you were…dropping by. Is everything okay with Molly and Fi?"

"I wish I knew," Kathleen answered, concern evident in her eyes. "Jack only said they wanted the book. I'd fly to New York and demand some answers if it weren't for Rachel and Melinda. Even if Molly and Fi planned to tell them the truth, I'm sure the last thing they need is another shock."

Jack nodded in agreement. "They definitely don't. Fi said the aunts just found out, and poor Aunt Rachel sounded like she wasn't all there."

"Hey, um…" Clu began. "Mrs. McQuinn? When you said 'fly,' you didn't mean literally, right? 'Cause you don't have a broom or anything."

Jack and Carey couldn't contain their laughter, while Irene glared at her son. _"Clu Bell!"_

"It was an honest question!"

They didn't have to worry since Kathleen herself laughed, almost as much as her grandson. "Oh, don't be upset with the boy, Irene, he makes a good point. No, we don't fly on brooms. When I say 'fly' I use it more as reference to disappearing from one place and reappearing somewhere else."

"See, if I were going to learn a spell, that's the one I should work on," Jack said. "Mainly because a car _I_ paid half for _magically_ ends up on Clu's college campus most weekends. Then it's returned to me without a full tank of gas."

While Clu looked sheepish, Kathleen saved him from further interrogation. "So why don't you learn it, Jack?" Kathleen challenged. "I confess I'm disappointed that your mother is allowing you to pass on training. If you don't learn and practice at least the basics, you could start to lose the small amount of power you have."

"That would be a bad thing?"

Kathleen narrowed her eyes at her grandson, who suddenly regretted his momentary sarcasm. "Well," she began in a sweet tone that verged on saccharine. "Either you'll lose your magic, or it will spiral out of control. We'll have to wait and see, won't we?"

Sensing the tension, Irene cleared her throat. "Hey Carey, Clu, why don't we go back to the house for a bit while Jack visits with his grandmother? You can both start on the messes you left in your rooms when you moved out. I meant to toss everything into garbage bags myself, but I feel it's only right to let you two do the honors."

"Yes, Mom," her sons chorused. Good-byes were said as the Bell family exited through the back door.

Jack felt a little nervous about being left alone with his angry grandmother. Unlike her daughter, Kathleen actually _would_ know how to turn him into the animal of her choosing. "I'm sorry, Grandma," he began. "Please accept that I'm just not into magic. That stuff is my sister's department, you know? I'll use my power when I have to, but I just want to have a regular life. I don't know what I want to do for my career or anything but I know I don't want to be a witch."

"You speak of magic as if it's a choice, love. Does your mother's experience not teach you anything? She had the same attitude you do, and did it last?"

"I'm not exactly like her," Jack insisted. "I accept that magic exists. I'm willing to step in if my family needs my help. Can't that be enough?"

Sympathy slowly diluted some of Kathleen's frustration. She stepped towards her grandson and put an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but no, not if you ever want your power to be useful. How can you help your family without strengthening your magic, hm? That's like saying if you were a professional athlete, you wouldn't want to attend practices, you'd just want to play the game. Let's say I wasn't able to help send the book to Molly and Fi. Would you have been able to handle the transportation spell on your own?"

His grandmother's logic was wearing him down. Jack now realized that magic worked like a muscle – if he didn't build it up, it would be useless in future emergencies. He flashed back to when he met his father and his past life in a dream. Rick warned him that Molly and Fi would need his help in the future. "Okay, fine," Jack grumbled. "I understand what you're saying. I'll learn the basics, but that's it. Let's not get crazy here."

"Woudn't dream of it, love," Kathleen said with a chuckle. She stepped towards the spell book on the table and Jack reluctantly followed. "Now how about we start by casting this spell together? I'll guide you and provide support if necessary."

Jack forced back a groan and tried to seem interested. "Sure, Grandma. What page?"

* * *

Less than an hour later, the spellbook sat on the coffee table in Rachel's living room. Fiona, her mother and her aunts sat around it while Fi spoke on speakerphone with her grandmother. (Their spunkie guest hovered nearby, mostly staying around the teen witch's eye level.) Kathleen had called almost as soon as the book appeared to demand more of an explanation. "So you really think this 'Spying Eyes' spell would be better than trying to summon him?" Fi asked, not for the first time.

"_I know how much you want to speak with him, love, but it sounds too dangerous. Who knows what else you might attract to the apartment? I hardly think your poor aunt wants her home destroyed by a bunch of evil spirits."_

"Thank you, Kathleen," Rachel called.

_Laughing at Rachel's response, Kathleen continued, "And if the connection is strong enough, he still might be able to get a message across. Those who are 'tuned in' often sense that someone's watching them."_

All four women brightened at the thought of possibly communicating with their lost family member. "Hey, Ma?" Molly asked, reading over the spell like she might read a cookie recipe. "I'm a little confused about the directions here. It says 'the destination you seek will appear on your desired surface.' Which surface? Should we use a mirror or something?"

"_I'm glad you asked because I was getting to that. No, don't use a mirror. I know from experience this spell often backfires if the target location is protected by magic. Sometimes the protection wards cause the glass to shatter."_

Melinda tilted her head in thought. "So what then? A large pool of water? Splashing gets the floor all wet but it won't kill us."

"Right," Rachel drawled. "Let's run a bath, stand around the tub and see what comes through. _That_ doesn't sound ridiculous."

"At least my suggestion was helpful!" Melinda retorted.

Fiona and her mother shared amused glances. Neither of them imagined this weekend would include Rachel and Melinda arguing over the best way to cast a spell. "Wait, what about the blanket in your room, Rachel?" Molly asked. "It's a solid, light color. Like a movie screen. We can hang it up on the wall in here somehow."

"_That sounds perfect, good idea Molly. But I still think I should fly over there to guide you."_

While Molly tried to discourage her mother, Fiona gave the spunkie a 'don't even think about it' glare. She could practically hear the metaphorical wheels turning in his twisted little mind. "Um, I think you should stay there, Grandma," she said. "Remember when I told you about our guest? I'm sure he's itching for a body with witch powers to control."

"I resent that!" Bricriu exclaimed. "You said I'm 'forbidden from entering anyone's body.' A deal's a deal, Little Duck."

"I also said that means my mom and my aunts. I never specifically named my grandmother. You think I was born yesterday, spunkie?"

"You might as well have been considering your short human lifespan," Bricriu grumbled.

"_I don't like this situation, Fiona. Will 'o the Wisps are notorious for deceitfulness and disloyalty. You shouldn't allow it to stay for so long."_

"How insulting, especially when I'm right here," Bricriu said. "Maybe us spunkies are a little _independent_, but at least we're not high-and-mighty. You witches think you're better than the rest of us just because you have so-called 'morals.'"

"That is _not_ true!" Molly exclaimed, becoming defensive. "I mean, I have morals, but I don't think I'm better than anyone just because I'm a witch." She paused as reality sank in. "Oh my God, I'm arguing with a spirit over paranormal class ranking."

"There's the Molly I know," Rachel said with a chuckle.

"Okay, hold on, I have an idea." The phone still in her hand, Fiona turned to Bricriu. "Why don't you go back out there and see what you can find about the Nephalem after my dad's soul? If you come back with useful information, we'll start to trust you."

"But those Nephalem want to destroy me too. It's safer in here!"

Fi grinned at the ball of light. "Not so much if you prove to be wrong about this whole thing. My mom and I fought through an army of demons once. And went up against centuries-old demi-gods. You think you could take us on?"

There was a long silence before the spunkie replied, "Demi-gods? I hadn't heard about that."

"Why am I not surprised gods exist?" Melinda muttered, Rachel nodding in agreement.

Finally the spunkie floated back towards the window. "Okay, fine, have it your way Little Duck. But don't start thinking I'm your messenger. This is a one-time thing to prove my intention to help. I promise to return at nightfall tomorrow."

"You better!" Fiona called, waving as the spunkie flew out again through the window. She was so distracted by the spunkie's exit that the sound of her grandmother's voice over the phone gave her a jolt. She'd almost forgotten the phone was still on.

"_Nice work, Fiona. You've gained much confidence from your supernatural investigations. I'm glad it won't be here when you look for your father."_

Fiona blushed. "Thanks. That was my thought too. Is there anything else for the spell?"

"_No, that should be it. If there's nothing else I'd like to return to Jack's magic lesson. You have the book but there's plenty I can teach him without it."_

Both Molly and Fi grimaced, feeling sorry for Jack. "Don't give him too much at once, Ma," Molly pleaded. "I'm shocked you got him to agree to this in the first place."

"_Truth be told? So am I. I'm eager to teach him as much as I can before he regains his senses."_

They all laughed and said good-bye before Fi hung up the phone. "Okay, let's get to work on this spell," Fiona said as she stood up from the couch. "Where are your candles, Aunt Rachel?"

"I'll show you. Now, wait a second, you two," she said, waiting until the two witches glanced back at her. "I know I'll regret asking this, but…did you really fight an army of demons? And demi-gods? Or did you say that just to get the ball of light to go away?"

Again, Molly and Fi exchanged knowing smiles. "Well," Fi began. "The demon one is true, but we didn't actually _fight_ the demi-gods. We mostly just fended them off while Mom threatened to turn one into a rat. When she didn't know how to turn anyone into anything."

"Fi! I've asked you to stop bringing that up!"

* * *

Less than an hour later they'd turned the living room into an ideal setting for practicing witchcraft. Fastening the blanket to the far wall took some improvising. After unsuccessful attempts to tie it to either end of the small space, Rachel finally got out some duct tape and used almost half a roll attaching all four ends. As she put it, the possibility of ruining her favorite blanket never entered her mind, not when she might see her brother again.

They moved the couch so it ran parallel to the kitchen counter, creating a seating area that faced the screen. Kathleen said these types of summoning spells were typically done by candlelight, with the electric lights off, so the four women filled the apartment with candles. Between emergency candles and gifts she'd received over the years, Rachel had accumulated enough to fill the apartment with a soft glow.

The spellbook rested on the coffee table. From her seat on the couch, Fiona read the Spying Eyes spell yet again even though she'd almost memorized it. Part of her wished she could cast the spell on her own to help her focus. Her aunts' presence worried her since all this was so new to them. What if they accidentally said or did something to prevent the spell from working? Fi even questioned her mother's confidence in this situation. They'd mostly practiced quick spells that froze things or flew objects across the room, not ones that required planning and communication with spirits.

Then again, she didn't have much practice with this either. Who was she to judge?

Besides her inexperience, Fiona couldn't get over the sensation of casting a spell with her family. Rachel and Melinda only found out about magic hours ago. She feared if things somehow went wrong, they would go into a deep denial of the day's events.

When her aunt Rachel sat next to her, Fiona couldn't help sharing some of her anxiety. "Hey, um, we're almost ready, so I just wanted to say…be ready for anything. Mom and I haven't even tried this spell before – we don't even know what to expect. Most of all, uh, please don't be mad at us if the spell doesn't work. I swear we're going to try our hardest so if we can't get through to him…"

"Fiona, honey, stop." Rachel wrapped her niece in a crushing hug. "I love you no matter what happens – now, tomorrow, this weekend. I don't care if you're all-powerful or if you can't get this spell to work. I'm just glad to be in on the secret. While the existence of magic is a major shock, it would have been worse if you never told me."

Tears in her eyes, Fiona hugged her aunt again right as Molly and Melinda also took seats facing the screen. Molly sat on Fiona's other side and Melinda claimed the easy chair next to the couch. Fiona composed herself before she reached for the spellbook, sending her mother and her aunt a reassuring smile. "Is everyone ready?"

"No," Melinda confessed. "Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the magic part. This is all very cool and makes me feel like I'm setting the stage for a play. It's…the results that scare me. I'm scared that seeing Rick for such a brief moment will leave me with more questions than answers."

Both Fiona and Molly knew what she meant. They'd seen Rick more often over the past year but it was never enough. "Melinda," Molly began sympathetically. "If you're not ready for this, none of us would blame you for leaving the room."

Melinda shook her head. "No, I would hate myself for missing the chance to see him. I just had to say what I felt."

Her family members nodded in understanding. Molly patted her sister-in-law's hand before turning to the spellbook. "Let's do this before we all change our minds," she said.

With the spellbook open on the table, Molly reached for her daughter's hand. Fiona took it, then held out her hand for Rachel. Molly copied the gesture on her other side towards Melinda. "I don't understand," Melinda whispered. "What do you want us to do?"

"Same here," Rachel agreed. "We're not witches, we don't have any power."

Fiona shook her head. "Not true. Maybe you're not witches, but you love the person we're trying to contact. I think that will help." Her mother smiled in approval while the four women gathered around the book. "Okay, here we go."

"All of us?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, all of us," Fiona insisted. Their voices joined together as they began reciting.

"We cast this spell to inspire,

A window to our hearts' desire."

They repeated the spell over and over until the candles started to flicker. An inexplicable wind blew through the apartment, gently blowing wisps of smoke through the air. Melinda and Rachel stared wide-eyed when a soft blue light appeared in the center of the makeshift screen.

All four women gasped mid-spell when an image appeared on the blanket. They couldn't see Rick, only a cloudy glass panel set in a dark wall. As she squinted her eyes Fiona could make out rolling smoke that obstructed anything behind the glass. She gripped her mother and aunt's hands a little more tightly, scared of what they might see after this. Instead of resisting her grip they returned it with equal force. They all knew what this meant – if Rick was behind the smoke, he must be in trouble.

Her legs shaky, Melinda moved quickly from the chair to squish herself in beside Molly. No one objected. "I-is he in there somewhere?" she whispered.

"I hope not," Rachel replied.

"Daddy?" Fiona shouted, willing her voice to pass through the screen to her father, wherever he was. "We're here, Daddy! It's me and Mom and Aunt Rachel and Aunt Melinda. Please talk to us if you can!"

Molly hugged her daughter tightly. "Fi, I don't think he can hear us through –"

She cut herself off when the image of Rick's ghost appeared, the smoke surrounding him. His words weren't what anyone expected to hear. "Don't look for me…please stay away…too dangerous…I love all of you."

The blanket quietly exploded into a million pieces, coating the four women and Rachel's apartment in beige cashmere confetti.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"How _dare_ he?" Molly fumed. About a second after the blanket exploded, she paced her sister-in-law's messy apartment, blowing out candles as she went. She was so lost in her own fury that she didn't notice her power swirling around the room. An invisible force snuffed the candles she hadn't reached yet and pushed the confetti into neat piles on the floor.

Fiona and her aunts noticed. After Rachel turned the lights back on, they could only brace themselves while Hurricane Molly whipped through the apartment. "He has the nerve," Molly seethed. "The _nerve_ to tell _us_ it's too dangerous, when he's the one trapped behind a damn glass wall! What the hell, Rick?"

Much to everyone's confusion, Fiona burst into laughter. It felt good to laugh after all the anxiety and fear she'd experienced that day. "I'm sorry," she said through chuckles. "I know it's a very serious situation. It's just…I've never seen Mom talk about Daddy this way. I've never seen her so _angry_ with him. I almost feel like they're together again." She paused, still worried she'd offended her aunts. "I'm sorry," Fiona repeated. "I'm extremely stressed and that was my knee-jerk reaction."

She let out a sigh of relief when her aunts smiled. Even Molly cooled down, her personal tornado slowing down to a breeze.

"Don't apologize, Fi," Melinda said, putting an arm around her niece. "I know what you mean. It's like Rachel said before – when someone dies, you don't usually talk about them as if they're still alive. All this is messing with my emotions too. Molly's not the only one angry with him for pushing us away, when he clearly needs help."

Since the magical storm wasn't cleaning her apartment anymore, Rachel began scooping up blanket pieces and blowing out the rest of the candles. "Hey, I'm right there with you," she assured them. "But maybe Ricky has a point. If the big bad creature managed to kidnap him, how are _we_ going to rescue him?" She returned their glares with one of her own. "Don't look at me like that! Of course we're going to help him somehow. I'm just being realistic…well, as realistic as I can be after casting a magic spell."

Fiona shared Rachel's concern, and her focus on the next step. They were definitely going to rescue her father but they also needed a game plan. "I agree with Aunt Rachel," she said. "And I think we should wait and see what the spunkie says when he gets back tomorrow. In the meantime I have some sources I can call."

"You have _sources_? On _this_?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow at her teenage niece.

"Well yeah, this is my specialty," Fiona retorted with a wide grin. "Give me at least an hour with my laptop and I'll find a lead."

"You didn't bring your laptop with you because of airport security," Molly reminded her.

Fiona picked up the cordless phone and started to dial her house. "Then let's hope Grandma Kathleen hasn't gone home yet."

* * *

They canceled their dinner reservations for that night. Even though they'd ordered in some excellent Italian food, Molly didn't have the stomach to eat more than half her pasta. She couldn't get the picture of Rick out of her head - specifically, the unmistakable determination in his eyes. He didn't want them to rescue him and he'd damn well find a way out all by himself.

That was the Rick she remembered. His warning was only part of the reason she'd gotten so angry. At the same time she wanted to hunt down whatever creature did this to him, send it to hell along with the tri-headed demon Cael. As much as Rick wanted her to stay away, she was equally determined to find him and destroy his captor. She'd make sure her husband found peace even if she ended up in the afterlife with him.

Since she couldn't eat much of her dinner, Molly woke up around two in the morning hungry for a snack. She'd only gone to bed a couple hours ago since they all stayed up late talking about Rick, and some of what happened to Molly and Fiona since becoming witches. They didn't go into detail about Rick's crash, but Fiona did talk about the demon and her history with the spunkie. While she talked she researched on the laptop Kathleen sent over. (Fortunately Molly's mother had still been at the house when they called.) Molly sat up in bed for a minute, debating if she was really hungry enough to actually get up and go into the kitchen. Not only that but she'd most likely wake up Melinda, who slept on the couch.

Hearing her stomach actually growl settled the dilemma. Maybe she wouldn't wake up Melinda if she was really, really quiet. Too bad she never mastered that transportation spell, then she could just snap her fingers to get the kitchen and back. Or she could bring the granola bar she wanted to her. Well, Molly preferred doing things the old-fashioned way. She padded down the hall as lightly as she could and sighed with relief when she reached the kitchen island.

Then she heard crying. She supposed she would have heard it sooner if she wasn't so focused on her post-midnight snack mission. "Melinda?" she called. She grimaced, wondering if she should have left her sister-in-law alone and pretended she didn't hear anything.

"I'm okay, Molly," Melinda whispered through her tears. Overall her answer sounded unconvincing. "I'm just a little overwhelmed by everything. I'll be fine in the morning."

Molly tentatively sat on the arm of the couch by Melinda's feet. "Do you want to talk about what happened? I know this is a lot, to say the least. You're more open-minded than Rachel, but magic is a tough one for any sane person to swallow."

"I can't imagine what you must have gone through." Melinda sat up on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. Molly sat, then passed the tissue box on the coffee table to Melinda, who rested it on her lap. "Thank you," she said through a sniffle. "But I mean it. Before this trip, I would have said you were just as logical and _stubborn_ as Rachel. How the hell do you go from that to being a witch?"

Since she knew she _was_ stubborn, Molly only laughed. "Not easily," Molly assured her. "It's been…a battle, both figuratively and literally. There was a time last year where, I swear to God, I never thought I'd live long enough to see you again."

"Right, Fiona mentioned that," Melinda replied. "We talked about Rick tonight, but before the weekend's over I want a full recap of your adventures. I get so lost every time you or Fiona mention something you've dealt with. I'm also concerned that two people I love very much are risking their lives on a semi-regular basis."

"It's not intentional, believe me. Now come on, why were you crying? General emotional burnout, or specifically because of Rick?" Molly gave her a worried glance loaded with sympathy. "It's okay, Melinda. I…I cried myself to sleep too."

The tears continued to fall as Melinda leaned on Molly's shoulder. "It's everything, Mol. But seeing Rick today put me past the breaking point. How are we going to save him? We don't even know where he is! Even if we do find him, how are we going to fight a…what did Fiona call it earlier? The half-angel, half-demon thing?"

"Nephalem," Molly answered, the word ingrained in her mind. "This isn't impossible, Mel. I'm sure this thing isn't half as scary as the demon my kids and I defeated a while ago. We've also defied demi-gods and lived to talk about it. As scary as this is, I've learned that we can do almost anything."

Melinda sat up so she could stare at Molly with absolute awe. "Look at you!" she said, making Molly blush. "I've never seen you this optimistic! Confident, yes, but this is different. I think accepting who you are did you a world of good, Molly. I feel like you've dumped a lifetime's worth of denial and anxiety off your shoulders. Granted, today has been very stressful, but you've certainly changed since I saw you two years ago. I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you," Molly replied, still blushing from the unexpected compliment. "I have changed. So have Fiona and Jack. I'm not crazy about magic, but at least the three of us are a unit now more than we've ever been."

Melinda became quiet for a second, then asked, "Molly? Rachel mentioned something about Rick, how he's tied to all this. I feel it too. What else aren't you telling us?"

The punch of guilt from her talk with Rachel returned full-force. Molly couldn't answer Melinda's question at that moment. For one, they'd be up talking the rest of the night. More importantly Molly knew Rachel should also be present for this conversation. "Fiona and I want to wait until the four of us can discuss the whole story."

"We were talking all night after the spell."

"It wasn't the right time, we were already so emotional," Molly insisted.

"So when?" Melinda challenged. "When we're fighting this _Nephalem_? How are we supposed to fight for Rick without all the information?"

Dumbfounded, Molly stared at her. "Melinda, this is something Fiona and I are – "

"Oh, like hell you are," Melinda spat. "What, you thought Rachel would sit here by the phone while you and Fiona went off to rescue Rick? Not gonna happen, Molly."

"But –"

"Remember how mad you were when Rick told you to stay away?"

Molly sighed. She wouldn't win this argument at two in the morning. "We'll revisit this after breakfast later." At the mention of food she realized her stomach still grumbled, reminding her about the granola bar she never ate. She got up to finally retrieve it from the snack cabinet.

"Yes, we will," Melinda retorted. "And you're going to tell me and Rachel what happened to Rick."

Too tired to think of an argument against it, Molly just nodded. "Yes, we will. I'm going back to bed, have a good night, Mel."

"Goodnight, Molly." Her defiant expression softened as Molly approached the hallway. "And, thank you. I really feel so much better."

"You're welcome."

* * *

When Molly woke up six hours later, the first thing she did was tell Fiona about her talk with Melinda. "I feel like they're going to gang up on us," she confessed. "Melinda will tell Rachel, and they'll corner us both before we can sit down for breakfast."

Fiona laughed. "Is this a psychic hunch or paranoia?"

"Both, possibly," Molly answered with a sigh. "All I'm saying is, brace yourself. This won't be an easy morning – especially if we tell them _everything_."

Anxiety on her face, Fiona went to hug her mother. "We'll get through it. I mean, it can't be worse than when I told you."

Molly cringed, still feeling guilty for how she lashed out at her daughter six months ago. "Baby, I'm so –"

"Mom, it's okay, I wasn't looking for another apology," Fiona assured her. "I just meant that, no matter what happens, we'll work things out. They've handled magic pretty well so far. Okay, the truth about Daddy's car crash is on another level, but…"

Molly waved away her explanation. "I understand where you're coming from. On the bright side, maybe they'll be so upset they won't want to help us find Rick."

"What do you mean?"

"Something Melinda said," Molly answered. "She wants to help us find your dad. I got mad, because it's dangerous and she isn't a witch, then she pointed out what happened when we contacted Rick and…"

This time Fiona held up her hands to interrupt. "Gotcha," she said with a grin. "I kind of agree, it's going to be dangerous and –" She stopped mid-sentence when the hairbrush that had been on her bed flew up and hit the wall. Realizing she still held up her hands, she sheepishly lowered them. "Whoops."

"At least I'm not the only one who needs to work on control," Molly noted, unable to hold back her laughter. It felt good to laugh given the emotional weekend. "Anyway, you were agreeing with me?"

Fiona nodded. "I think we should try to keep them away from the crossfire. Maybe we can compromise by letting them help with research or something."

After considering the suggestion, Molly replied, "I can see Rachel accepting that, but Melinda's more like your dad was, meaning she'll want to get involved and no one will be able to stop her. Rachel has those qualities too but she's more likely to 'get involved' by going to a library."

Mentioning Rachel's old-school research methods made Fiona shake her head. "I've begged Aunt Rachel to trade her library card for a laptop so many times, but she won't budge."

Molly laughed again, trying to imagine how _that_ went. "Maybe this will convince her. I doubt she's going to find information about Nephalem in her local public library."

"Hey, this is New York, remember? You never know," Fiona joked. "I've been meaning to check out some occult bookstores myself. But maybe we will have better luck now – that is, if she still wants to help us after we tell her the truth."

* * *

They ate breakfast in almost complete silence. When it wasn't quiet, everyone acted overly polite. Fiona heard a lot of "please pass the milk" or "I'll have some more coffee, thank you." She and her mother sat on the living room side of the kitchen counter, while Rachel and Melinda stood around the kitchen. Fiona couldn't help thinking the group had become divided on purpose. No one wanted to bring up the elephant in the room until breakfast was over, but at the same time, Rachel and Melinda made their demands perfectly clear. Things would not go back to 'normal' (a useless word at this point) until they all had _the talk._

When the last cereal bowl went in the dishwasher, Rachel turned to Molly and Fiona. Melinda moved to stand next to her as a sign of unity. "I know this is going to be hard for all of us," Rachel began. "But it's not fair for you to hold back on some of the truth when we've taken everything else pretty well so far. Okay, yeah, Mel handled it better than I did, but I didn't run screaming either. If Rick's death had something to do with magic, we deserve to know."

"We weren't holding back to hurt you," Molly insisted. "It's just we can barely speak of it ourselves most of the time. When Fiona first told me I…"

Surprised, Fiona glanced at her mother. "Mom, you don't have to –"

"I do," Molly insisted. "What I did to you was horrible and they need to know so they don't make the same kind of mistake."

Reaching for her sister's arm, Melinda looked like she desperately wanted to read between the lines but couldn't figure it out. "I don't understand. Molly, what did you do?"

Molly cleared her throat and put an arm around her daughter's shoulders, her eyes on Rachel and Melinda. "I…I hurt Fiona," she confessed. While Rick's sisters gasped and stared in horror, Molly continued, "We'd just tapped into our powers so our magic was mostly controlled by our emotions. When she told me about Rick, I got so angry that I…I telekinetically threw my daughter across the room just because she was the messenger."

"You're making it sound worse than it was," Fiona said, attempting to defend her mother. Both her aunts now looked at Molly like she was some kind of monster. "She really had no control over her powers. Things still fly across the room when we fight, but we don't accidentally hurt each other anymore. One time _I_ got really mad and –"

"It doesn't matter, Fiona," Melinda interrupted unexpectedly, her glare at Molly outright hostile. "She still shouldn't have hurt you."

_Why did Mom have to bring that up?_ Fiona thought, suppressing a groan. "It was an _accident_ and it hasn't happened since. Tell them, Mom." When her mother didn't say anything, Fiona realized Molly no longer stood by her side and went to pace the living room. "Mom?"

"Melinda's right, Fiona. It shouldn't have happened. _None_ of this should have happened!" Molly insisted, her temper rising the more she circled the room. "I still hate it, hate all of it! Magic is a damn _curse_ and I wish I could go back to how things were before. If I weren't a witch you would all be _safe_. There would be no demons and Fiona wouldn't have been pushed off a roof. Rick would still _be here with_ _me_!" Abruptly Molly froze, realizing what she'd said, noticing the pain in Rachel and Melinda's faces. Reining in her anger, she slowly stepped closer to them. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, tears falling. "I'm so, so sorry."

Melinda now hugged her sister tightly, fear and confusion in her eyes. "Molly, I don't…" Melinda began, then had to try again. "What are you saying?"

Before Molly's temper erupted again, Fiona hugged her mother and chose to answer the question herself. "The demon that pushed me off the r-roof," she began, her voice wavering under her aunts' steady gazes. "It…it also killed Daddy. The firefighter at the accident site told me that Daddy was dead before the car crashed."

"No…" Melinda whimpered. "No, that's not possible…it was a car accident…"

Meanwhile, shell-shocked Rachel didn't say a single word. Her eyes brimming with tears, she broke away from Melinda's grasp and grabbed her purse from the counter. She ran out of the apartment and slammed the door behind her before anyone had a chance to react.

* * *

Almost a half hour later, Fiona awkwardly sat on a chair in the living room while Molly tried to console her sister-in-law. Melinda began sobbing right after finding out her brother had been murdered. When Rachel stormed out of the apartment, Fiona wondered if they should go after her, but then Melinda nearly fainted. Fiona still worried about her emotional and volatile aunt Rachel going off into the city alone. On one hand she wanted to ask if they should find her, but on the other, they couldn't ignore Melinda's distress.

And even though Fiona wanted to comfort her aunt, she had no idea what to say. She and her mother sat there in silence, waiting for Melinda to say something – anything. Eventually the sobs calmed down to quiet crying, tears soaking her cheeks even though she used half a box of tissues trying to dry them. "I-I'm s-sorry," Melinda finally sputtered. "Y-you…you didn't even tell me what happened, and I just c-completely fell apart…" She gathered her courage and made eye contact with her niece. "What happened, Fiona? How did…it happen?"

The question shouldn't have been a surprise, but Fiona hesitated when she realized she didn't exactly know. All she knew was that the demon killed her father. She didn't know any of the details of what happened that night or how her father really died. All of a sudden Fiona felt tears streaming down her own face. She hated that her answer would inevitably let her aunt down – both her aunts, when they found Rachel and she asked the same questions.

Why hadn't she looked into this? The demon that killed her father had been destroyed, but there were still questions. Why did her dad get in the car that night? Did her dad even know he'd been in danger?

"Fiona, baby?" Molly asked. She momentarily left Melinda's side to sit near her daughter.

"It's nothing," Fiona muttered bitterly through her tears. "Because that's all we know. What have we been doing, Mom? Do we know anything about that night and what happened to him?" She buried her head in her mother's shoulder, unable to look at her aunt. "Why didn't we ask more questions, Mom? Why did we let ourselves get distracted?"

"No, Fiona, I'm not blaming you," Melinda assured her, moving to sit on Fiona's other side. "I just wanted to know if you could tell me anything else. You…if I'm understanding this right, you already destroyed the demon that killed my brother. That's more than I could have ever asked of you."

Fiona shook her head in protest even as Melinda hugged her. "But we could have found out more when we confronted the demon, or when we last talked to Daddy, and we didn't think of it. And why didn't we do more research afterwards during the tour? Why did we waste so much time?"

"Because we're human."

Both Fiona and Melinda glanced up at Molly, who suddenly sounded fierce and determined. "Not technically," Fiona retorted, in no mood to be comforted.

"I don't care how my mother refers to witches," Molly snapped. "We're both just as human as anyone else, which means we're allowed to feel overwhelmed and make mistakes. We were both thrown into a terrifying, brand-new situation, armed with powers we barely knew how to use. It took all our strength and wit just to survive. Ever since then, we've struggled to balance very human lives with learning to control our magic. We can only move forward now, so we're going to pull ourselves together, and we're going to find Rachel. Then we're going to rescue my husband and make him tell us what the hell he was thinking that night."

They found Rachel at her office. They didn't need to look very long since it was Melinda's first suggestion. After staying with her sister for over a month, Melinda learned that Rachel often went to her office when she was supposed to be off. The workaholic lawyer spent time there for a variety of reasons. Some days she needed time to herself, on other days she just couldn't think of anything better to do.

On this particular Saturday, Melinda insisted they'd find Rachel hiding out in her office with the door locked. The challenge would be convincing her to unlock it.

In order to get to Rachel, all three family members had to show IDs at the front desk in the law firm's lobby. As soon as the security person printed their visitor's passes, a distressed blonde woman in her early twenties stepped out of their elevator bank. "Thank God you're here!" she exclaimed, hugging Melinda in greeting. She turned to Molly with wide brown eyes. "Oh my God! You're Molly Phillips, right? It's so cool that Rachel is related to you. I grew up with my parents playing PKB albums at every family party. I don't know if you remember, but Rachel once asked you for an autographed CD for me. I'm so happy I get to thank you for it in person!" She then shifted her hug from Melinda to Molly.

Overwhelmed by the assistant's bubbling energy, Molly politely broke away as quickly as possible. "Uh, yes, I remember her asking. I'm glad you got it."

"I did! And Fiona, don't think I forgot about you!" She completed the hug trio and left her arm companionably around Fiona's shoulders. "We met the last time Fiona visited. How's that website of yours? I still check once a week, you've got me hooked."

Fiona laughed along with Rachel's assistant. Stacey Calhoun could be a lot to take, but she was one of the sweetest, most sincere people Fiona ever met. "Hi Stacey, it's great to see you again!" Fiona said, trying and failing to match the woman's enthusiasm. She decided to keep things on track since they needed to get back to the apartment as soon as possible. "Um, so you saw Aunt Rachel?"

"Yeah, what _happened_?" Stacey asked, eagerly leading them into the next available elevator. "She was so excited about you guys coming, I didn't even expect to see her today. All of a sudden she shows up in the _worst_ mood I've ever seen her in – if you don't mind me saying."

Holding back a chuckle, Fiona replied, "We don't. We're, uh, just glad she's okay."

"I wouldn't say that exactly. She didn't even fill up her coffee mug before she locked the door, and that's pretty bad," Stacey went on.

Melinda attempted to get a word in as they quickly exited the elevator, walking down a long, luxurious hallway covered in plush navy carpet. "We're here to hopefully bring her home. There was uh...some unexpected family drama. I won't bore you with the details but we need to clear the air."

"Details never bore me," Stacey said with a chuckle, but she didn't press when they arrived at the door to Rachel's office. A row of empty cubicles, presumably for the assistants, lined the opposite wall. "Well, here you are. I'll make myself scarce, and try to hold off anyone else who's here today, but there's still going to be a few people walking by. Good luck with everything!"

Stacey darted off, and the trio left behind reflexively took a deep, calming breath. Then they all chuckled, recognizing their similar reactions.

They became serious again when they remembered their mission. "Rachel?" Melinda called. "It's us! You better let us in now or your whole law firm's getting an earful of your personal business!"

She didn't have to ask twice. The door unlocked and Rachel ushered them into her spacious office, checking for passerby before locking the door behind them. "I'm only letting you in so I can tell you this," Rachel said. She looked disheveled, her hair out of place thanks to the summer wind, her face pale again. "I…I need a few hours alone, okay? Let me sit here and stew until dinner time. Then…then I'll be able to deal with that bomb you dropped on me. In a way I'm glad Molly told us how she reacted, because if she didn't I might have gone the same route."

"I'm so sorry, Aunt Rachel," Fiona began, her heart aching for her distraught family member. "I don't even have any more information for you, I only know what the firefighter told me and –"

Rachel shook her head. "No, Fi, don't apologize because none of this is your fault. It's all because of that…that _thing_..." She paused, shaking with suppressed anger. "I'm trying very hard to not use any stronger words with Fiona in the room. It's just…I'm so furious! I'm beyond furious. I want to hit something and throw things and…I _can't!" _Rachel's voice rose a few notches, tears escaping. "I can't do anything because it's over! There's no one to hunt down, no one to prosecute, no one to _rip apart with my bare hands_ and I can't make this anger go away…"

When Rachel's rant trailed off into sobs, Melinda ran over to comfort her sister. "I know, Rach," Melinda assured her. "Believe me, I know. But you know what we can do? We can help him now."

"How?" Rachel whispered. The sisters sat down on the couch under her windowsill, while Molly and Fiona took seats at the small conference table to the left of the desk. "Presumably, Molly and Fi are the only ones who can do anything," Rachel said through her tears. "What can Mel and I do? We don't have magic, or any knowledge of the thing that took Rick's soul." She was calm enough to roll her eyes at herself. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say."

Her family laughed quietly as Molly replied, "Fiona and I talked about how you can help us. We don't want either of you anywhere near evil forces, but you can research them. You need to find out anything you can about Nephalem and where they might be holding Rick."

"Isn't that Fiona's department?" Rachel retorted stubbornly.

"Mom and I need to work on the magic end," Fiona insisted, trying to make Rachel's role sound crucial. It really was important since any new information might give them an edge. "Maybe this afternoon you and Melinda can visit some bookstores and do a few web searches."

Melinda gasped as she glanced at her watch. "Oh my God, I'm signed on for the matinee today! I'll have to call my understudy."

"Mel, don't," Rachel protested. "You can help when you get out. You can't miss a Saturday performance." She followed up with an explanation for Molly and Fiona. "Saturday shows have the biggest audiences. She also stands a better chance of being seen by an agent."

"Please, like I'd want an agent to see me while my eyes are red and puffy," Melinda pointed out. "And I can't imagine bopping along to sixties music while I'm so torn up about all this. I already told my understudy I might have to call on her this weekend, so it's really no big deal. In fact I'll call right now if I can use your phone…"

Rachel waved at the phone on her desk, so Melinda nodded in thanks and went to use it. Rachel sighed as she glanced at her sister-in-law and niece. "Do you really think I'll be able to find information about…what are they...Nephalem, right? I've looked up some pretty obscure court cases, but this will be a challenge. I mean, most people don't even believe demons _or_ angels exist, let alone hybrids."

"Hey, people like us are out there," Fiona replied. "And we're in the perfect city to find them."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

A half hour later, the four women stepped out of a yellow cab and stood on the sidewalk outside a store called _Everyday Enchantments._ It was the nearest occult bookstore Fiona found when she searched on Rachel's computer. Situated on the lower west side, it supposedly had the biggest collection on the subject in the city. Plus, according to some of Fiona's website members, the store owners knew everything there was to know about real magic.

Fiona would be the judge of that.

"I don't feel good about this," Molly muttered as they approached the door.

"Why not?" Melinda asked, surprised. "It's just a bookstore. A little spooky-looking but I'm sure it's harmless."

They faced stairs that went down below sidewalk level, leading towards a plain wooden door with a stained glass window at the top. A small display window featured stacks of books around a genuine cast-iron cauldron. "Maybe we should pick up one of those while we're here," Fiona joked, glancing at her mother. "Didn't Grandma say we should have one?"

"We're _not_ buying a cauldron," Molly insisted, making the others laugh. "For one, where would we keep it? There's no room in our kitchen cabinets as it is."

Getting into the spirit, Rachel teased, "Come on, Mol, every witch needs a cauldron. We can even see if they have a black pointy hat."

"Irene said that would be bad for my image."

"I always liked that woman," Melinda said with a chuckle. "Too bad she couldn't make it this weekend."

The mood continued to be light as they entered the shop. For the most part the place resembled a typical bookstore, with rows of books set into cherry-wood shelving. Deep purple paint covered the walls, while gemstones and bottled herbs filled the display shelves. One mystifying factor was the size. The storefront looked tiny but the store went farther back, creating a winding path that led to another door for employee use only.

Fiona did a double-take when an actual black cat appeared from the back room.

"You've got to be kidding me," Rachel whispered, avoiding the large cat (the size of a small dog) as it wandered closer to them. "Good thing none of us are allergic."

She didn't need to worry since it headed straight for Fiona. "Hi there kitty! Aren't you the sweetest?" The cat purred as it wound itself around Fiona's legs, then jumped straight into Fiona's arms when she held them out.

"Apollo must like you. Either that, or you're a powerful witch. Of course one doesn't preclude the other."

Startled, Fiona looked up to see a tall elderly man with dark curly hair enter from the same door Apollo used a minute before. Even though he had to be in his late sixties, he didn't seem frail at all and walked with confidence."E-excuse me?" Fiona blurted, still holding the cat in her arms. Molly went to her daughter's side and put her hand protectively on Fiona's shoulder.

"Uh, I bet you say that to all the customers Apollo likes," Rachel said, jumping in before either witch said too much. "Get them believing anything you want so they buy more books."

The salesman laughed and shook his head. "No, but I like that you were smart enough to say so. It's amazing how many people come in here ready to believe any mumbo-jumbo I tell them. Now, as for Apollo, he has a sense for the real thing. That's what makes me think the power must be radiating off you, young lady." He ended his speech by making eye contact with Fiona. He didn't seem accusatory, or threatening – simply intrigued to hear her story.

While she knew her mother wouldn't want her to reveal the truth, she felt in her gut that confirming this man's suspicions led to information they needed. She continued treading carefully and waited for the right moment to lay all her cards on the metaphorical table. "That's interesting, mister, uh..."

"Call me Noah," he said. "I'd offer you my hand but your arms are full with Apollo."

Fiona laughed, keeping the cat in her arms. For some reason she felt more secure with the cat close by. It would be one thing if the cat wanted down, but Apollo let her cradle him against her chest like she'd known him his whole life. "I'm Fiona. Uh, this is my mom Molly, and those are my aunts Rachel and Melinda."

Everyone exchanged polite hellos, but Fiona's family remained guarded when they spoke with the stranger. "So...you believe in the 'real thing,' then?" Melinda questioned. "Real magic?"

"Shouldn't be running this store if I didn't," Noah confirmed without a hint of embarrassment. "We get plenty of skeptical looky-loos, so anyone in here better have a thick hide. We also realize there's a difference between new age Wiccans...and those with real power. If you have something you're afraid to ask, don't be. I've heard it all."

This gave Fiona the confidence to push ahead. "What do you know about Nephalem?"

Noah didn't even blink. "Plenty. We've got a bookshelf dedicated to hybrids in the 'Demons and Angels' section."

"My God, you're serious," Rachel whispered, causing Molly to give her a warning look.

Turning back to Noah, Molly said, "I guess you're wondering why we need this particular information."

"A little, but I'm always curious why anyone wants my books." Noah walked around the counter and led them towards a bookshelf against the wall behind them. "It's none of my business so you can tell me what you want. However, I will say I've experienced a lot in my seventy years – and much more in my past lives. I may know something not in these books. The salesman in me insists you buy them anyway."

* * *

The group began browsing the shelves with Noah assisting them. "So, uh," Fiona began. "Do you keep in touch with the magical community around here? We think the Nephalem we're after is local." She'd finally let Apollo down to browse the books, but the cat stayed so close to her she worried she'd trip over him.

Meanwhile, Molly narrowed her eyes at her daughter, cautioning against trusting a stranger. Fiona's shrug translated to _let's see if he's all talk. _

Fiona's question finally made Noah pause. "You're 'going after' a Nephalem? One in particular?"

"We have reasons," Rachel said dryly. Her sister showed her agreement with an enthusiastic nod, her eyes on one of the books.

"I'm sure you do," Noah replied, some amusement in his eyes. "I'm just worried about you having the supernatural juice to back it up, no insult intended of course. It would be irresponsible of me to arm you with the knowledge but not the muscle."

Fiona exchanged one more look with her mother as she gathered her courage. "We do," she said confidently. "We're O'Sianhan."

The shopkeeper's stunned reaction confirmed his involvement with real magic. His jaw dropped, and he needed a second to respond. "S-so," he said, fighting for composure. "Calling you a powerful witch was right on the nose...or rather, an understatement." His gaze shifted from Fiona to Molly. "I always wondered about you, Molly Phillips. Many of us did."

Everyone stared at him wide-eyed, most of all the addressed witch. Rachel put her hand on Molly's shoulder for reassurance – and probably to make sure the frightened singer didn't run out of the store. "Y-you 'wondered' about me?" Molly blurted, her words defensive. "What the hell does that mean? And what the hell do you mean by 'us'?"

"Witches, including myself and others," he replied, a calm counterpart to Molly's building temper. "We've had eyes on you ever since 'Love is Broken.' People still talk about 'the premonition song,' as many refer to it. There have been whispers about you and witchcraft for years – frankly, even more than Stevie Nicks. It's almost laughable that you're nervous about keeping your secret. Trust me, even if you did come out of the broom closet, no one would be the least bit surprised."

By the end of his speech the tension broke, with Fiona and her aunts dissolving into helpless giggles. Molly gave them all death glares while they fought to catch their breath. "It's not funny, guys!" she whined. "The whole freaking world knew I was a witch before I did. This is not funny at all!"

"You're right, it's not funny," Rachel wheezed between gasps for air. "It's _hilarious_."

Bracing herself against a bookshelf, Melinda added, "The funniest...thing...ever!"

Chuckling at their reactions, Noah asked, "Anyone want to let me in?"

"She," Fiona said, pointing at her mother for emphasis. "Used to be a huge cynic. Right up until six months ago when finally accepted her power."

The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow at Molly, who's face was red with embarrassment. "You've only been a practicing witch for six months? Really?"

"Yes," she retorted, fighting for dignity. "It's a long story, one I don't care to share with a complete stranger. And since I'm still...in the broom closet..." She rolled her eyes at the phrase, sending her family into another giggle fit. "I'd _appreciate_ it if you didn't share this meeting with anyone in the 'community.'"

Noah tilted his head at her. "You know, witches already love your music. It's popular in coven meetings, meditation sessions, all that. I even stock your new CDs along with the old Phillips Kane Band albums. If word happened to _spread_ about this incident..."

Molly's face now reflected nothing but stubbornness and the slightest hint of fear. "My manager would have a field day with this one, and I'm thankful that you sell my albums. However I'm not going to exploit this and reinvent my image just for sales – especially not when I'm still adjusting to it."

Her uncensored confession took the dollar signs out of the shopkeeper's eyes. He let out a resigned sigh. "If you insist, Molly Phillips. You have my word that it will remain between us. Let's move on from business and see what books your family has picked out."

* * *

The pile of books on the sales counter grew to almost a dozen. Fiona might have picked out more if Apollo didn't insist on being picked up again. Charmed by the insistent furball, she carried him around the store while she took one last look around. If they weren't on a mission to rescue her father, she could spend hours in this store, exploring other topics besides demons and angels. Even then, she quickly picked out a volume on witchcraft and added it to their pile. Feeling like the proverbial kid in a candy store, she promised herself she'd come back to the bookshop during her next trip to New York.

Though maybe not with her mom. After her conversation with Noah, Molly remained spooked and edgy. Fiona didn't blame her. Underneath Fiona's initial amusement, she shared her mother's anxiety about "coming out of the broom closet." Could they really trust Noah's word? Fiona didn't care either way since she already talked about witchcraft on her website. (However, she kept it vague, drawing the line at revealing her true power.) Her mother would experience a very different reaction from the public if this long-time "rumor" gained mainstream media attention.

Fiona also found it interesting that her mother had been recognized almost everywhere they went this weekend. While Molly had been famous before her children were born, many people considered her a "has-been" in the years after (and boy, did Molly and Irene despise that label). Apparently her comeback tour worked since fan encounters happened much more frequently these days.

As Fiona wandered back to the counter, still carrying Apollo, she saw that another salesman joined Noah to help ring up their books. The man with messy brown curls looked no more than thirty. When he saw Fiona with Apollo, he chuckled. "You guys gotta be witches," he declared, much like Noah had.

Noah waved away the awkward expressions from the Phillips family. "Yes, yes, we've already gone through that routine. Just ring up the books, Liam. They have a lot of reading to do."

"I'll say," he muttered, reading book titles as he scanned them. "Hey, Grandpa, have you told them about In Between? If they're really looking for Nephalem, that's where they should start. You know, if they'll be able to see it."

Always eager for more information, Fiona latched onto the name. "'In Between'? What's that, an alternate dimension? Wouldn't be our first time visiting one."

Her aunts gave her strange looks. Even Noah and Liam paused, both amused and intrigued. Molly just sighed and put a hand on her forehead, not eager to relive Medius. "No," Liam said slowly, torn between laughing at her and asking for the full story. "It's a restaurant and bar a few blocks away from this place. I'm surprised my grandpa didn't mention it already considering your...mission, here."

"Actually he did," Melinda said. "I think Fiona was playing with Apollo at the time. He said he'd write down the address before he left."

Noah nodded while he took out a notepad and pen from underneath the counter. "Yes, I'll do that now," he said as he scribbled down an address. "It's a popular hang out for the magical community. Not just for witches, mind you, or just for humans. Now that I think about it, Fiona's guess wasn't so far off the mark. It's considered a connection between the worlds."

"Won't the non-magical community notice a place like that?" Rachel joked, picking up the paper. She raised an eyebrow at the address. "You know, this seems familiar. I feel like I stopped in for a drink after work once."

Noah and Liam exchanged curious glances. "I'm sorry," Noah said. "I didn't realize you were a witch too."

Rachel dropped the paper like it was on fire, letting it sail down to the counter. "N-no. Fiona and Molly are O'Sianhan. _I'm_ pure Phillips."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Liam exclaimed, dropping the book he'd been about to scan. "Information overload here. So," he said, glancing towards exasperated Molly. "You are PKB's Molly Phillips, then? And...you're really a witch, an O'Sianhan? Holy crap, I gotta tell –"

"_No one,"_ Noah interrupted, rolling his eyes and giving Molly an apologetic smile. "Don't worry, I'll fill him in. Although, Rachel, it is curious that you were able to see In Between. Only those with magical blood can enter."

Melinda put an arm around Rachel's shoulders, bracing for the inevitable meltdown. This was too much after an already-emotional day. "She's not a witch," Melinda insisted since Rachel was speechless. "I'm her sister and I'm not one either."

Her mental gears spinning, Fiona considered, "But Daddy wasn't a witch either, and he had the sight. Maybe you both have it too and never realized it."

"I think that's our cue to leave," Molly said, taking out her credit card. She gave the two salesmen wary looks even though her smile remained polite. "Thanks for everything. You've...really helped."

After saying good-bye to Apollo, Fiona made sure to grab the address on their way out.

* * *

Her mother stayed quiet during the ride back to Rachel's apartment. This worried Fiona, even more so than her aunt Rachel's ill-concealed anxiety. This weekend had been emotional almost from the start, but so far, Molly held herself together. Since both her aunts looked disturbed by the bookstore encounter, Fiona didn't know if she could handle a new wave of panic attacks.

Melinda tried to send Fiona a reassuring smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. They all kept silent until the cab driver dropped them off at Rachel's building. As they entered the apartment, each carrying a bag of books, Fiona nervously cleared her throat. "So, um, I guess I'll...go read." She picked the top book off a pile and started to go into the living room.

"Everybody wait."

They all turned to Melinda, who moved to stand between the living room and the hallway, preventing them from separating. "We don't have time for this," she insisted. "We're all upset for different reasons, but we can't forget that Rick's soul is in danger and we should probably go to this In Between place tonight. Not to mention the Will 'O the Wisp is due to return in a few hours. We _don't have time for this."_ Melinda narrowed her eyes at her sister and Molly as she repeated her words. "In order to learn as much as we can, we need to work together, not retreat to our separate corners while you two have yourselves a good pout."

"Hey!"

"Excuse me?"

Melinda rolled her eyes at Rachel and Molly, respectively, while Fiona stared in awe. "Both of you need get a grip on your emotions, just this once. Because the truth is we've dealt with much worse crap this weekend and I'm sure we will continue to deal with it before the weekend is over. Molly, you can discuss your questionable public image with Irene when you're back home."

"But do you realize the whole world knows -"

"Oh, so what? I thought Noah's marketing idea was genius. You need to get over the old, cynical part of yourself obsessed with being 'normal.' None of us ever were." Barely pausing for breath, Melinda looked at her sister. "Speaking of, I know how difficult this is, Rach. But if we don't accept what we are, what we might possibly have, we won't be able to help. And I know you want to help."

Fiona continued staring at Melinda, her eyes huge while she reassessed what she thought of her aunt. She loved and respected all of her family members, but she often considered Rachel – a successful New York lawyer – the stronger of the two. (Privately, of course, as she'd never say this out loud.) This weekend was making Fiona look at Melinda in a new light. The fun-loving, expressive younger Phillips sibling had her own hidden source of strength that emerged in a crisis. Instead of trying to control everything around her, Melinda faced the unpredictable with courage and brutal honesty.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, Fiona hugged her aunt, surprising Melinda. "What's this for?" she asked, even though she returned the hug.

"For being you," Fiona said simply. While her mother and Rachel looked properly embarrassed, she grabbed a bag full of books and led the way into the living room.

* * *

"Well, that was interesting," Irene said, hanging up her cell phone. "Though I'm not sure 'interesting' covers it." She and Ned stood in the living room with their jackets on. They'd been about to go check on the boys again when Molly called with the latest update. Apparently Molly didn't have time for a full meeting, but she wanted Irene to start researching something for her over the weekend.

"Something" was the very real fear that everyone in the world knew her new, magical secret.

When she relayed Molly's story about the bookshop owner, Ned surprised her with a reaction she wouldn't have expected. "This again? I thought people moved on from the witch rumor twenty years ago. Of course, things might be a little different now that Molly's actually a witch."

"Exactly! It's very different!" Irene replied, feeling panic rise in her chest. "Back then it was some stupid rumor the tabloid mags loved to drag out in the years after Rick's death. Now it's...it's true! When I first became Molly's manager I thought the worst I'd have to deal with was typical rock star crap. I never thought she'd become my best friend, like a sister...and that she'd develop magical powers twenty years down the road. Suddenly I'm in charge of protecting a deep, dark, secret." When Ned wrapped his arms around her, the panic loosened and she could breathe easier. "Thank you. I'm just in over my head here. I mean, God, what if the wrong person found out about Molly?"

"Not gonna happen."

Irene gave her husband a sideways glance. "What makes you so confident?"

"Magic has been a secret since the beginning of time," Ned pointed out. "I bet you there have been witch celebrities before Molly. Plus, you know, people say the same thing about Stevie Nicks and she does okay for herself."

"But Stevie Nicks isn't a real witch."

"Is anyone sure about that? I would say Molly wasn't a real witch if I didn't know her."

"God," Irene muttered again. Still, she ended up laughing the more she realized how ridiculous their argument was. "I guess what you're _trying_ to say is there's a fine line between a colorful rumor and being burned at the stake."

Ned chuckled. "Exactly. Even if the rumor spreads and late night comedians start making jokes, no one will believe that Molly can really turn people into frogs."

"You know, we keep teasing them about it, but did she or Fiona even learn that one yet?"

"I hope so, that would be cool!" Ned replied with a grin.

"You're as bad as the kids," Irene said, still laughing. "Look, you're right, no one's going to believe that Molly and her family have magical powers. However I think I'll err on the side of caution and do some digging like she wanted. It can't hurt, especially if that shopkeeper goes back on his word and tells everyone." She let out a deep sigh before confessing something that had been bugging her for years. "I also worry about Fiona's website. I didn't want to alarm Fiona, but every so often the tabloids use it to stir up conspiracy theories about Rick's involvement with the paranormal."

"Is it a conspiracy theory if it's technically true?"

Irene rolled her eyes. "All I'm saying is, I think it's time to warn Fiona about adding fuel to the fire. She's old enough now to understand that the things she posts may impact her mom's career – if they haven't already."

* * *

As she went back into the living room after her phone call, Molly added her best friend to her growing list of worries. Irene sounded a little frazzled when they hung up – something unusual for the capable manager. She'd have to call Irene again in the morning.

If she survived the night. While Molly tried to project optimism around her family, she couldn't fool herself. What if O'Sianhan magic _wasn't_ stronger than this Nephalem? Were Nephalem stronger than the demon they destroyed?

And when did squaring off with evil spirits become a regular thing?

Shaking her head at her new life, Molly found everyone studying in the living room. Only they held takeout menus instead of books. "Dinner? Really?" Molly asked. They'd been reading for a few hours and missed lunch, but even so, she didn't have much of an appetite with everything going on.

Rachel looked up from her menu and grinned. "Okay, it's not a top concern, but we do need to eat sometime."

"I don't see why we can't eat at the In Between place," Fiona replied. "They said it was a bar and a restaurant."

"I think we might be a little too busy to eat," Molly replied.

Melinda laughed. "Yeah, we're not like you, Ms. Big Shot, who can make a sandwich with an evil spirit hovering around her."

"I was hungry!" Fiona protested, her face red while the others laughed.

After they picked a menu, Rachel sighed. "This weekend sure isn't turning out how I planned. I pictured going out to dinner every night, lots of shopping, maybe even a spa day. _Not_ finding out you two are witches and rescuing my brother's soul."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Molly replied. "Unfortunately these things happen to us more and more often lately. I wanted this to be a 'magic-free' weekend, but well, that went out the window soon enough."

"You mean _through_ the window," Fiona joked.

They all laughed as Molly said, "My point being, I understand completely, Rachel. I was just thinking how everything's changed so much. I'm using phrases like 'magic-free weekend.'"

"Speaking of changes, there is one thing I've been meaning to ask," Melinda began. "How do Irene, Ned and their family fit in to this? They all know? We sort of accepted it as fact but when you went to call her I realized there must be a story behind it."

Molly and Fiona exchanged knowing looks, both remembering how difficult it had been to let the Bells in on the secret. "Honestly? We were fighting the demon, so I thought my days were numbered," Molly confessed. "And this was right after accepting my powers. I couldn't handle all that _and_ keep it a secret from Irene."

"She would've found out eventually," Fiona added. "Things just happened fast because we didn't think we had much time left. All things considered, she took it pretty well. Plus Mr. B and the guys say magic is the coolest thing ever."

Putting an arm around Fiona's shoulders, Rachel hesitantly asked, "When you say...you didn't think you had much time left..." When Fiona and Molly nodded, their expressions somber, Rachel hugged her niece closer. "It's still sinking in, I guess. You said you fought the demon, but I just...I just couldn't picture it. Now that we're sitting here, facing what we're facing, I keep thinking...my God, you've gone through this before. You're practically used to it."

"Not 'used to it,'" Molly assured her. "_Never_ 'used to it.'"

When Fiona looked to the window, everyone followed her gaze. "Speaking of facing off with evil spirits..."

Molly braced herself. Even though she didn't see it yet, she knew her daughter must have glimpsed the ball of light. The spunkie had returned.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Fiona, her mother and her aunts jumped to their feet right as the spunkie burst through the window again. They all remembered what happened last time, because Rachel and Melinda ducked behind their witch relatives, while Molly held up her hands towards Bricriu just in case. Fiona wasn't sure what spell her mother had in mind, but Molly seemed determined to protect her family – even if she needed to wing it. "It's okay, everyone," Fiona assured them. "He and I made a deal last time, remember?"

"I was hoping ye forgot," Bricriu retorted, only half-joking.

Crossing her arms, Fiona simply raised an eyebrow at him and tried to look unimpressed. "So are you here to harass us again, or do you have actual useful information?"

"Me, harass you? Hah, but that's a good one! Were ye not the one who trapped me in an accursed bottle before I could say a single word?"

"You interrupted our night to begin with!"

"An old friend can't drop by to say hi?"

Rolling her eyes, Molly had to yell to be heard above the bickering. "Cut it out, you two! Let's skip the fighting this time and get to the part where he tells us what he knows. _Now!" _she insisted, eyeing the evil spirit warily.

"Aye, and I think I've figured out where the Little Duck inherited her bossiness from. I may start calling you Mama Duck."

"I have some choice names for you too, _believe_ me."

Fiona snorted to cover up a laugh while her aunts smirked. Bricriu wouldn't be able to play his usual games when confronted by two witches, a lawyer and an actress. "Better do what she says, spunkie."

"I can see that," Bricriu retorted. "Fine then, I'll start with the most important one. There is a place where many beings gather, and I'm sure you'll be able to find someone connected to the Nephalem that has Rick Phillips' soul. It is a place only for those connected to the spirit world, so you will need a guide."

Fiona rolled her eyes. "Not really. We got the address."

The spunkie was quiet a second before replying, "Come again?"

Rachel went to the counter and picked up the piece of paper with In Between's address. "We're a few steps ahead of you, Firefly."

"I'm not a –"

"Well, I always forget what we're supposed to call you, so you're Firefly."

Impatience seeped into Bricriu's next question. "How did you find out about In Between?"

"You're not the only one with sources," Melinda replied, grinning at Fiona.

"Exactly," Fiona said with a nod of agreement. "So if you don't prove yourself useful, I might just banish you from this apartment and we'll go find the Nephalem ourselves."

"Will you give me a minute?" Bricriu snapped. "Now, In Between is not somewhere you can waltz into and expect to find answers. Everyone will be on their guard if you let on that you're O'Sianhan too soon." When Fiona gave him a sideways glance, he added, "Oh, please, are ye really surprised I found out? All I have to do is mention your family, and everyone begs me not bring the legendary O'Sianhan witches down upon them."

"'Legendary O'Sianhan witches?'" Molly repeated.

Before her mother could worry about the Molly Phillips fan base again, Fiona pressed on. "Okay, okay, sorry I asked. What were you saying about everyone having their guards up?"

"It will help if you're accompanied by one of their own, meaning me," Bricriu explained. "I can point out who might know something, so you don't have to speak with everyone in the room. And trust me, there are some characters we're all better off avoiding. I'll also know who might work with Nephalem. Or who _is_ Nephalem."

The family members traded glances, silently debating the wisdom of taking the evil spirit to a place full of evil spirits. "I mean, it's not the worst idea," Fiona conceded. "And if we run into trouble we'll have someone on our side." She then sent the spunkie a death glare.

Bricriu quickly agreed. "See? I'm not all bad!"

"I didn't say that," Fiona retorted. "And I think we should bring someone else with us too."

While her aunts gave her curious glances, Molly shook her head. "No, no way. There's no reason to drag him into this. My son is safer at home. I'll never forget when he got hurt..." She trailed off, her eyes closed, clearly reliving the battle. "I can't put him through that again. It's bad enough _you're_ going. That any of us are."

"What happened to Jack, Molly?" Melinda demanded.

"A demon attack messed up his shoulder," Fiona replied, her eyes still on her mother. "But you're neglecting to mention that you were hurt too. It was weeks before we all fully healed from that battle, and we all have scars. But we survived. Haven't we learned that we have the best chance of making it when we're all together?"

Tears in her eyes, Molly still tried to protest. "He's not involved in this, Fiona."

"Do you really think he'll feel that way once we tell him? If we're alive to tell him? It's Daddy, Mom. Jack has every right to go with us, just like he had a right to go into battle with us."

The room stayed pin-drop quiet once Fiona finished speaking. Eventually Rachel cleared her throat, nudging Melinda towards the front door. "Hey, Mel, let's go pick up dinner. We can't order food when our resident evil spirit might possess an innocent delivery guy."

"Aye, you're a smart one," Bricriu said with a chuckle.

"But..." Melinda trailed off, reluctant to leave, accepting that her family members needed to talk. "Okay, I guess we'll go. Uh...should we get something for Jack?" At Molly's glare, she ducked out the door with her sister. "We'll pick up an extra dish!" she called.

* * *

Jack never had a hangover before, but he imagined this was what it felt like. He could barely move until he slept at least nine hours and made himself coffee (something he recently started to drink when he needed an energy boost). Clu and Carey came back over sometime in the afternoon. The original plan had been for them to stay the weekend, but Grandma Kathleen took forever to leave, and Jack went to bed almost immediately after.

Who knew magic lessons could be so exhausting? They worked on the transportation spell for a while, and after sending himself to his grandparents' house – in _Philadelphia_ – Jack decided he preferred taking an airplane. Or driving. Or even walking. Walking across the country would have been less draining than what he went through.

"I have a whole new respect for my grandmother," Jack said, taking his second dose of aspirin of the day. "Magic is not as easy as it looks." The three of them sat around the living room playing video games and planning their evening. Hosting a party was out of the question now, especially since he still worried about his family's latest drama, but the Bell brothers made it their mission to drag him out of the house.

Fascinated, Clu wondered, "What's it like? I mean, it looks easy when your grandma pops in out of nowhere." He shook his head in amazement. "Man, I'll never get used to that."

Jack considered Clu's question. "It's like...well, you know when you study for a test so much, your brain hurts?"

"No," Clu and Carey replied in unison.

"Stupid question," Jack said with a laugh. "Basically I feel like I pulled an all-nighter for a final exam worth half my grade. There's no way I'm going out tonight. I need to sit on this couch and enjoy the solitude."

"That sounds boring," Clu said.

"I'm okay with boring. _I'm_ boring."

"Oh yeah," Carey said, chuckling. "You're the most boring reincarnated knight/demon-fighting witch I know."

Jack rolled his eyes. "That's recent stuff. At my core, I'm boring." When the phone rang, Jack forgot his sleepiness for the moment and jumped for it in case it was his family. "Hello? Mom, Fi? Are you okay?"

"_Hey, bro_. _Um, are you alone?"_

Inexplicable dread filling his stomach, Jack replied, "No, Clu and Carey are over."

"_Close enough."_

"Fi, what are you talking about?" Jack glanced over at Clu and Carey, all three sharing confused looks...

Then his friends were gone. In the literal blink of an eye, Jack's surroundings changed from his living room in Colorado to his aunt's Manhattan apartment. Standing in front of his apologetic mother and sister, Jack realized he no longer held the phone...and still wore his ancient sweatpants with a faded t-shirt. "You could have at least let me change first," he grumbled.

* * *

An hour later, Fiona and her family cleaned up the takeout containers while Jack paced the apartment. She noticed that he never went near Bricriu, which took some talent since the spirit enjoyed pestering him. They told Jack everything over dinner – including when he'd been possessed – and he was _not_ taking It well. The fact that he still wore his old sweatpants and t-shirt didn't help him look anymore sane.

"'Magic-free weekend,' they said," Jack muttered to himself, doing another lap around the living room. "'We won't tell the aunts,' they said." He finally stopped pacing, turned to his family and threw out his hands. "How...the hell...did all this happen?"

Everyone shamelessly pointed at Bricriu. Jack rolled his eyes.

No one spoke until Rachel cleared her throat. "Um, this probably won't help, but I still don't understand how exactly this is possible. We left to get dinner and somehow you were here when we got back. I'm really supposed to believe you were in Colorado and then you were just...here?"

While Melinda patted her sister's shoulder, Jack frowned sympathetically. "I'll empty my pockets if you want. You won't find a plane ticket. Or, you know, clothes I would normally wear out of the house." He gave his mother and sister a sideways glance.

"I did say I was sorry," Molly pointed out. "And that I'm still against this. But your sister has a thing about battling evil as a family."

"It's tradition," Fiona insisted, only half-joking. While she and her mother might be able to rescue her father themselves, Jack needed to be there. She didn't know why, or where the idea came from, but it just had to be all three of them. Maybe her psychic instincts were trying to tell her something.

Jack let out a resigned sigh. "Okay, okay, since I'm here I might as well help. And I'm kind of nervous about leaving you all here with _that_ thing," he said, indicating the spunkie.

"Your hostility wounds me," Bricriu replied, unable to hide his amusement. "Especially when we were so close once."

"Yeah, that's just creepy. Demonic possession doesn't count as bonding."

While the others laughed, Rachel rolled her eyes. "Good God," she muttered. Then she said out loud, "So Jack, I think you left some clothes in the guest room if you want to change. At least you're wearing sneakers."

"Thank goodness," Jack replied. "And honestly, I only threw my sneakers on because the guys were over, and my socks have holes in them."

"Not that Carey or Clu would've noticed," Fiona pointed out.

Jack shrugged. "It was the principle. And after this, I'm never walking around barefoot again."

"Please, you're acting like you'll disappear into thin air on a regular basis..." Molly started with sarcasm, but she trailed off when she realized it might not be so far-fetched. "Never mind."

Soon after Jack went to get his clothes, the phone rang. Fiona happened to pick up. "Hello?" She remembered her manners a second later. "Uh, Rachel Phillips' phone. This is her niece."

"_Fi, it's Irene. Please tell me your brother's there."_

"Yeah, he is, don't worry." While Fiona wanted to laugh at the absurd situation, she also felt terrible about making the Bells panic. She'd assumed that Clu and Carey would figure out where Jack went. "Didn't the guys tell you?"

_Even Fiona could hear Irene's sigh of relief. "Thank God. Fiona, next time one of you vanishes like this, give me a warning first. My blood pressure can't take it."_

Fiona laughed that time, feeling better that Irene wasn't too angry. "I'm sorry, Mrs. B. Didn't Clu or Carey..."

"_They didn't think it was worth mentioning. Then when I dragged it out of them that Jack literally disappeared, they neglected to say he was talking to you on the phone when it happened." She paused to catch her shaky breath. "I'm still not used to all this, and I don't think I will be for a long time."_

Fiona wrapped up the conversation, then passed the phone to her mother so the best friends could clear things up. When Molly put the phone back on the cradle, she gave Fiona a guilty look. "I'm stressing her out," Molly commented. "Since this weekend didn't work out in the magic-free department, maybe we should lay off it for a while when we get home."

For once, Fiona agreed without argument. She wouldn't mind it either.

* * *

While preparing to leave for In Between, another argument broke out among the family members and their magical visitor. This time, one of their family members was on Bricriu's side. "Come on, guys!" Melinda insisted. "You three need to control your powers, and Rachel's too chicken. I'm the most logical choice!"

"_Not_ chicken," Rachel argued fiercely, temper ignited in her eyes. "I'm just not volunteering to get possessed by an evil spirit. And you must already be out of your freaking mind if you think for a second I'll let you do it!"

"_Let me?_ I am a grown woman who has the right to decide..."

"Playing host to an evil spirit is not a matter of age, Mel. It's a matter of sanity and I'm beginning to think we've all lost it."

The Phillips family and the evil spirit stood around the living room, no one daring to interrupt the siblings' fight. It all started when Bricriu brought up an important issue – he wouldn't be allowed to enter In Between. The incognito establishment had a firm "no obvious other-worldliness" policy. His solution had been to inhabit someone's body during their mission. What was the risk when Fiona could send him away if things went wrong?

Fiona didn't know who she sided with either. On the one hand, _inviting_ Bricriu to inhabit her aunt's body screamed "bad idea." She felt like he'd used the situation to trick them. Why would he insist on coming with them, when he knew he wouldn't be allowed in? He clearly manipulated this so he could inhabit a body.

On the other hand...he might actually prove useful. Fiona wished she'd had more time to research Nephalem. Bricriu might also have background information on individual creatures they encountered.

"Okay, here's my issue," she said, speaking loud enough to draw her aunts' attention. "We don't know what's going to happen tonight. I can send the spunkie away as long as we're all together, but what if we're separated? What if something happens and the he kidnaps Aunt Melinda's body?" She paused. "Whoa, that was a weird one, even for me."

"Do ye humans not understand that I have feelings?" Bricriu sniffed, attempting to convey genuine hurt. "I would prefer if ye stopped questioning me loyalty every few minutes."

Jack glared at him. "And I would prefer if you weren't here, but what can you do?"

"See? Unnecessary."

Rachel sighed. "This is what I'm talking about, Mel. We don't know what's going to happen tonight. It's dangerous enough for those in our right mind. Do you realize you'd give up complete control?"

"_No_, I thought the evil spirit and I would make decisions together," Melinda retorted, dripping with sarcasm.

"Okay, Rachel's right, this is insane," Molly spat, moving to stand between the two grown siblings. She broke up the fight much like she would do for her own children. "Melinda, neither of us are allowing you to do this. We'll figure out another way."

Melinda glared at both of them. "Not you too, Molly. Look, if I can do something to help find Rick, I'm going to do it and you can't stop me." She paused. "And no casting spells on me either. I saw how Fiona froze the spunkie."

"Don't tempt me," Molly retorted.

Jack held up his hands. "Wait, hold on, are you all sure we have to do this? We know where we have to go, so why don't we just...tell this thing to go away? Whatever benefit there is can't be worth risking Aunt Melinda."

His aunt smiled at him. "Aw, that's sweet, even if it doesn't help my case here."

"Or mine," Bricriu growled.

Fiona sighed. "Jack, I hate this too. Really. But he's the only source of information we have on this. We only know Daddy's in danger because of him. I don't know much about Nephalem or how to find them, specifically the one who has Daddy's soul. I don't like admitting this, but things _should_ go a lot smoother if the spunkie's with us."

"Thank you, was that so hard?" Bricriu grumbled.

"Fiona!" Molly exclaimed. "We recruited Jack because you insisted. Can't you meet me halfway on this one? Isn't there..._anything_ else we can do?"

As much as Fiona racked her brain, she couldn't think of how to bring the spunkie with them, besides letting it take over her aunt's body. On the other hand, there might be a way to make things safer for everyone. "No..." Fiona began. "But I'd feel better if I wasn't the only one who knew the spunkie's name. That way Mom, Jack or Aunt Rachel could send him away too."

Fiona could feel Bricriu's hostility. "Absolutely not! It's bad enough you know me name!"

Undeterred, Fiona snapped, "This will be easier with you there, but we could probably manage on our own. Take it or leave it."

"Another deal, eh? I feel like I'm getting shorted. Allowing three more witches to have power over me..."

"_Two,"_ Rachel interrupted. "Again, not a witch."

Fiona thought Bricriu would roll his eyes if he had any. "Alright, two witches and an annoying human. Doesn't seem like an even trade."

"Tough," Fiona retorted. "Don't let the window hit you on your way out."

"That doesn't even make sense!" When Fiona didn't reply, a loud groan emanated from the ball of light. "Okay, okay. You have another deal."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"So...can Melinda hear us at all?" Molly glanced back at Melinda (or the body that usually was Melinda) while Rachel parked near In Between. The twenty-minute car ride had been awkward at best. No one could get used to Melinda's bizarre accent and mannerisms. As Bricriu explained it, he couldn't control human limbs with the same finesse as an actual human.

"No," Bricriu-as-Melinda sat in the back with Fiona and _very_ uncomfortable Jack. Rachel insisted she was not sitting next to that _thing_ formerly known as her sister. "She's not even conscious right now," Bricriu explained, distracted by making the backseat window go up and down. "It's like she's been tucked away in a far corner of her mind, with no awareness of anything."

Meanwhile, Rachel glared back at Bricriu as she pulled into the parking spot. "If you don't stop playing with my car windows, _you'll_ have no awareness of anything."

"Oh relax, just having a bit of fun. Technology is an amusing human invention."

"Yeah, it's hilarious. Now close the window and _leave it alone." _She let out a deep, calming breath as she turned the car off, giving Molly a pleading look. "How am I going to get through this? Help me! Maybe I _should've_ volunteered to be possessed. At least then I wouldn't know what was going on."

Molly frowned sympathetically, wishing she could do more. She waited until the kids, and her possessed sister-in-law, got out of the car. "You don't have to go with us, Rachel," she whispered. "I can make excuses if you want, but personally, I wouldn't blame you at all. You've been here for us this whole time. That's more than enough in my book."

But Rachel shook her head. "No, no, I can't. I'd never forgive myself if I left my sister. Something else might be controlling her body, but that's still _her_.I need to watch out for Melinda."

While she hated that Rachel and Melinda were involved, Molly understood the sentiment. They both got out of the car and joined the group in the parking garage. At first Fiona suggested taking the bus since they didn't know how long they'd be gone. Rachel explained that her firm paid for a reserved spot, and it happened to be within walking distance of In Between. That's why she'd recognized the address.

"Rachel, I'm surprised you're able to see In Between," Bricriu commented as the group reached the sidewalk. "But I guess I shouldn't be, as ye are Rick Phillips' sister – and his twin at that. It's only natural ye would share some of his gift."

When Rachel paled, Molly patted her shoulder in reassurance. "Let's change the subject, okay? What should be our first move when we get to this place?"

"Order a drink? I do enjoy indulging when inhabiting a human..."

Molly glared at Bricriu. "We'll avoid the bar, for starters."

"We'll get a table," Fiona suggested, clearly hoping to defuse the tension. "Maybe order a few snacks to keep up pretenses. Meanwhile, the spunkie can tell us if he recognizes anyone. If he does, we'll talk to them and ask about Nephalem."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, I really hope we get a lead here. Otherwise we're back to square one. I mean, how else will we find Dad's soul?"

"It'll be okay, baby," Molly assured him. "We'll find him. I truly believe we will."

* * *

They reached the restaurant and Fiona opened the door. Everyone stood in the entryway, surveying the ordinary scene in front of them. A long bar lined the wall to their left, not very busy this early and tended by one bartender. The restaurant took up the right side of the space, separated from the bar by a low divider wall. At least fifteen or twenty circular tables dotted a dark room. Again, it wasn't as crowded so early in the night, but small groups or couples on dates occupied almost half the tables.

"It looks so normal," Rachel whispered. Molly realized her sister-in-law spoke the truth, as the patrons _looked_ like regular humans. If anything, a few gave the newcomers suspicious, unwelcoming glances, making Molly even more nervous.

They also didn't expect anyone to know their names when they walked in. Noah sat at the bar finishing a soda – or a drink that looked like soda. "Hi there!" he greeted, standing up and walking over to them. "Let's see if I remember your names, it's a tough game to play when you're my age. Molly, Fiona, Rachel, Melinda, and...this one here is new."

"I'm Jack," he said, giving his family a confused glance. "Uh, who are you, sir?"

"I'm Noah, we all met earlier today at my shop. I have to assume you're family?"

Molly reassured her son with a proud smile. "Yup, this is my oldest. What are you doing here, Noah? Were you...waiting for us?"

Even though he sensed Molly's protective tone, Noah wasn't bothered by it. "Don't worry, Molly, I'm only here because I want to help. I started thinking about your mission and didn't feel right staying out of it. If there's anything I can do, any information I can provide, please allow me to assist." He guided them towards a table. "Let's start with a round of appetizers on me, unless you've already eaten."

"Well, we won't say no to that, thanks." Fiona said, taking a seat at the table. She shrugged at her mother, indicating for them to go along with the new development.

As they all settled in, a waiter brought over menus along with silverware rolled up in napkins. Bricriu opened a menu and frowned. "You'll all have to decipher this menu for me. How do they pull off selling 'potato skins' for this price? I've seen potatoes, and I can't imagine how a cook would only serve the peeled skins..."

Noah's head snapped up at "Melinda's" voice, then narrowed his eyes at the others. "I didn't realize you associate with Will 'O the Wisps." The shopkeeper could barely keep the venom out of his words. "I sincerely hope you only permit this because you don't know its name."

Jack stared at him with interest. "You could tell right away?"

"Maybe not all the time, but in this case, I just heard the woman's normal voice hours ago."

Eager to defend herself, Molly explained, "Trust me, we hate that we have to work with him. We're terrified something will happen to Melinda. But please understand we were backed into a corner. He's the only lead on...on finding my husband's soul."

Her answer successfully deflated Noah's anger and judgment. "I should have known all this traced back to Rick Phillips. What happened?"

"He's trapped," Fiona answered, emotion in her voice. "We saw for ourselves. A Nephalem trapped him in some kind of prison. We have to get him out."

"You saw the Nephalem?"

Rachel pointed at her sister's body. "That's where this thing comes in. It told us a Nephalem was behind everything. We still don't know for sure if that part is true."

Slightly annoyed by their brutal honesty, Bricriu snapped, "I am right here, you know. _Some_ sensitivity would be appreciated."

"And I'd appreciate having my sister back, you smug piece of supernatural –"

"Rachel!" Molly whispered, indicating her teenage children.

"Right, sorry."

While Rachel composed herself, Noah chuckled. "Well that's reassuring, at least. I'm convinced you're not happy about this situation. Now let's see what I can tell you about Nephalem that I might have left out earlier..."

* * *

Jack treated the stranger with a healthy dose of cynicism. His sister seemed to like Noah, but his mother was still guarded around their new friend. He politely listened to Noah's advice while the group ordered appetizers and exchanged information. Talk became more amiable but Jack never relaxed, keeping vigilant eyes on Noah and the customers surrounding them.

Throughout all this, he felt bad for his aunt Rachel. He knew what it was like to be thrown into absolute craziness with no warning. Okay, maybe he had warning, but none he really believed. Saving his family from demons in their home was the first time he saw the danger for himself. Not only did he need to accept the existence of magic, he 'd had to push aside any negative reactions in order to face the threat at hand. His aunt's experiences this weekend mirrored his own. Given the way she'd nearly cursed out Bricriu (a moment Jack enjoyed), he suspected she wasn't handling this as well as she projected.

Since he was sitting next to her, Jack tried to help while everyone else chatted. "How are you holding up, Aunt Rachel? Be honest."

"Since when did you get to be such a grown-up?" Rachel teased, smiling at her nephew. "The thing is, I can't be honest right now. I need to just...focus on the present. It's kind of like when I have to defend a client and I'm not sure they're innocent." She sighed at her nephew's raised eyebrow. "The world isn't black and white, Jack. Just like a case, I'm putting everything I have into winning. I'll deal with my potential breakdown afterwards."

Minus the lawyer experience, it sounded familiar. Jack decided to give his aunt a break. "I've been there. Not fun, is it?"

"Not particularly, no."

Meanwhile, the group finished off the appetizers despite having dinner a couple hours earlier. Bricriu liked the potato skins and mozzarella sticks, but drew the line at spicy buffalo wings. When Molly said dairy-based liquids cooled spicy heat, Bricriu downed the entire cup of blue cheese dressing like a shot.

Not that Jack ever saw anyone take a shot, of course.

Always alert, Jack didn't contribute much to the conversation, surveying the restaurant and zooming in on any interesting details. For the most part, none of the other customers paid attention to them. Once in a while someone would give them a suspicious glance, but then they'd see Noah and back off. He must have been a regular. Jack was grateful to the stranger for that at least – he'd unwittingly, or maybe wittingly, provided them some camouflage.

"So Noah," Jack began. "Do you come here a lot?"

"Every weekend, pretty much. Why do you ask?"

Jack shrugged. "I've been looking around, and people here aren't happy to see a table of newbies. You're probably the only reason we haven't been bothered yet."

Impressed by the observation, Noah grinned. "You're a smart kid, Jack. Honestly I've been expecting some trouble myself. I guess those who are magic-sensitive can also sense that you're good witches. There might be trouble if the spunkie draws too much attention."

Molly frowned. "So, drinking a whole cup of blue cheese dressing probably didn't help."

"I don't know about that," Fiona joked. "We see worse when we're out with Clu and Carey."

The group laughed and resumed talking about Nephalem. Jack did another mental sweep of the room. This time he landed on something interesting by the bar. A dark-haired man stood at the end near the back of the restaurant. He talked to the bartender, but his eyes were glued to the Phillips' table. Jack lowered his own eyes slightly so they wouldn't make contact.

"Hey, everybody," Jack said to the group. He waited until they all sensed the urgency, looking at him with curiosity. "Ten 'o clock."

Bricriu didn't understand. "Are ye daft? It's not that late."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Suspicious character at 8, 9, ten 'o clock," he said, indicating the direction with his hand. Naturally, everyone whirled around to look at once. "Gee, that's not too conspicuous. You guys are _great_ at this undercover stuff."

"Oh, yeah," Fi said. Everyone immediately turned back to the table, and Fiona glanced at Bricriu. "Did you recognize him?"

Bricriu looked again, doing his best to be more discreet. "Yes, I know him! His name is Ambrose. We worked together years ago, but I don't imagine he would be happy to see me now."

"Do we want to know?" Molly asked.

"Probably better if ye do. We had targeted one particular human with lots of souls around him. The plan was to get in, pick off the first soul that wandered too close, and get out. Of course I caused such a ruckus that the whole family line showed up. Poor old Ambrose took quite a beating and needed centuries to recover."

Rachel tried craning her neck to get a better look at Ambrose. "So you think that's him? He's the one who has Rick?"

"I don't believe he's powerful enough to orchestrate everything. He might be on the lower rung of the operation, though."

"Good enough for me," Molly said, standing from the table with murder in her eyes.

Jack leaped to his feet and grabbed her arm before she ran off. "Mom," he whispered, "Please think about this for a second. What are you going to do, interrogate him until he cracks? Unless you know a spell that will make him take us to Dad, we need a better plan."

Even though she'd rather ambush the enemy, Molly saw the truth in her son's argument. "Fine," she grumbled, sitting back down. Jack and Fiona both breathed sighs of relief. "What are we going to do then? We can't let him get away!"

"You need to follow him."

They all glanced at Noah. "Follow him? When he leaves the restaurant?" Fiona asked.

"He came in from the back room." Noah pointed out a door in the back wall of the restaurant, next to the end of the bar. "This place is called In Between for a reason. There's a portal in the back room."

"To where?" Jack asked, even though he already knew what Noah meant.

"It's a portal to other worlds, other dimensions. Medius, Nexus, etcetera. Your best chance is to wait until he leaves, then make sure you're next to use the portal. It will still be tuned to Ambrose's destination."

Rachel's face paled again. "We...we have to go to another dimension?"

"How do we know you're not leading us into a trap?" Fiona accused, for the first time questioning Noah's motives. "All of this could've been an act."

Noah shrugged. "I have no real defense, except _I_ was the one to tell you this information. Not Ambrose. He could easily have come over and enticed you himself. He must realize you're eager to find Rick's soul."

"Good point," Fiona muttered, slightly embarrassed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack noticed Ambrose pay for his drink – with a credit card. Apparently some things were universal. "Hey, uh, if this is the plan we're going with, we better get ready. Our target Nephalem just paid his bill."

* * *

Fiona led the group to the back room. They parted ways with Noah at the bar, thanking him and promising to let him know what happened. He did them one last favor by explaining the situation to the bartender. Typically they would have to be approved first before they could charge into the portal. With Noah there to vouch for them, the five new customers could dash past the bartender into the back.

They found a typical restaurant storage room...except for the glowing, swirling portal against the far wall. They'd seen Ambrose run into the room. Since he wasn't there anymore, he had to go through.

Fiona took a minute to appreciate what she was seeing. The doorway consisted of cascading mist, almost like the bottom of a waterfall. Its color slowly changed from red, to orange, through all the colors of the rainbow. Remembering how The Nexus had been green, she wondered if each color represented a different dimension. She really hoped they didn't wind up in the wrong one.

"Hey! Don't you dare!"

Rachel's harsh command drew everyone's attention. She tackled her sister's body to the ground, sitting on Melinda's legs and pinning her arms behind her back. Fiona, Jack and Molly were too stunned to help, their mouths literally hanging open in surprise. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Rachel looked up at them with red-hot anger in her face. "He was kidnapping my sister!" Rachel spat. "I saw him slink towards the door! Nice try, you jerk."

"I wasn't running!"

"Like hell you weren't! Fi, exorcise him!"

When she fully processed what happened, Fiona's temper rose too, realizing once again the spunkie had betrayed her. When would she learn? "How could you?" Fiona exclaimed, too upset to keep her voice down. "Was all this another ruse? You wanted another body for a while, so you'd thought you'd kidnap my aunt?"

"No! Ye saw for yourself your father's in trouble! Everything else is true!" Bricriu finally stopped struggling to escape, realizing Molly and Jack had flanked Rachel in case he broke free. "I just saw an opportunity, okay?"

Molly glared down at the spunkie, pressing her foot on Melinda's left arm. "What was all that crap about wanting to help us?"

"I did, didn't I? Ye wouldn't have known who Ambrose was if I didn't tell you," Bricriu argued. While he didn't attempt escape anymore, he squirmed plenty, hoping to avoid as much pain as possible. He flinched when Molly stomped harder on Melinda's arm. "Okay, okay! I never actually planned to go into battle with you. I knew I'd be the first casualty. I only wanted to get ye to this point, then take off. While inhabiting a body if possible."

Jack went to his sister's side, his own death glare directed at the spunkie. "I _knew_ we shouldn't work with you. You're a coward and you don't care about anyone but yourself."

"You speak as if they're bad qualities to have...ow!" This time Molly had kicked him out of sheer frustration. Bricriu gave her an incredulous glance. "You know, this is your family member's body! She's going to be plenty achy in the morning."

Molly was only remorseful for an instant. "She'll forgive me."

Too upset about her sister to join in the interrogation, Rachel looked up at Fiona. "Do you need anything else? Can we exorcise him now?"

"One more thing." Fiona squatted down so she could look Bricriu in the eye. Her voice was calm and deadly. "I won't make the same mistake again. If you _ever_ bother me or my family in the future, it better be for a damn good reason. Otherwise you won't live to betray us another time. Do I make myself clear?" When Bricriu didn't respond, she repeated her question with a sharper tone. _"Do I make myself clear?"_

"Aye...Little Duck."

While her family stared in awe, Fiona stood up and dusted herself off. "Aunt Rachel, do you want to do the honors?"

Her eyes wide, Rachel blinked and found her voice. "Oh, uh, sure." She let out a deep breath before she chanted, "Bricriu, begone from this mortal form!"

Less than a minute later, Melinda woke up from her trance, taking in her surroundings with overwhelming confusion. Her family let out a collective sigh of relief. "What the hell..." She turned around to find her older sister still sitting on her legs. "Rachel, did you tackle me? And why does my arm hurt so much?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

After making sure Melinda was okay, for the most part, Fiona insisted her aunts go back to the condo. Everyone could tell Rachel was terrified of the shimmering portal. As for Melinda, she was in no shape to go anywhere except home. Molly and Jack quickly agreed to this plan, arguing that the sisters had done everything they could to help. It was more important for Rachel to take Melinda home.

The sisters finally relented when they realized their family members would not change their minds. Tearful good-byes were said as they hugged Fiona, Molly and Jack, wishing them the best of luck. Fiona felt a twinge of fear as she watched her aunts go. While she knew they would be safe going home...there was a chance she might not see them again.

But Fiona couldn't afford to think like that. They'd go through this portal, rescue her father's soul, and be back with her aunts by morning.

Putting on a brave face for her family, Fiona moved to stand in front of the portal. Soon after her mother was on her left, her brother on her right. No one said a word. Fiona let out a deep, calming breath, and stepped through the colorful mist. On instinct she closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was in...her grandparents' dining room? At dinner time?

Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Colin were sharing a casual meal with her parents.

Both of them.

"Daddy!" Fiona exclaimed, rushing to his side of the table. "Daddy?"

"I don't think they can hear us, Fi." Jack stood where Fiona had been, watching with the same heartache. "I don't know what's going on, but whatever this is, it's like we're not here."

Molly also watched with total bewilderment. "Come back over here, baby," she said to Fiona. When Fiona did so, Molly put an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "I'm trying to remember this dinner. Two months before the crash, we visited my parents for a weekend. I remember being really surprised that _he_ suggested it. He always got along with my parents, sometimes better than I did, but I still thought it was out of the blue."

While his mother took a trip down memory lane, Jack stared at the scene. "I don't get it. Aren't we supposed to be in another dimension? How did we time travel instead?" He shook his head in disbelief, still not used to asking strange questions.

"I'm not sure we did." Before Fiona could elaborate, the volume of the dinner party increased – like someone turned up an invisible remote. The group had finished eating and was clearing the table.

When nearly everything was brought into the kitchen, Rick glanced at the Molly he could see. "Why don't you and your dad check on the kids, Molly? I'll help Kathleen finish cleaning up."

Slightly confused, Alternate Molly raised an eyebrow at her husband. He only replied with an innocent expression. Shrugging, she left the dining room with her father. As soon as they left, Kathleen gave Rick a sideways glance. "You're not very subtle, love. You could have waited until after the dishes were put away."

"Sorry. I just hate keeping this from her."

"It's not your fault she doesn't want to hear it," Kathleen replied sadly.

Fiona and Jack immediately stared at their mother, watching her reaction. She looked furious more than anything else. "I can't believe he did this. That _they both_ did this. And she never told me about it all these years."

"Um," Jack whispered nervously. "To be fair, we don't know what they're talking about."

"I have an idea."

Meanwhile, Fiona never took her eyes off her father and grandmother.

"I can't put this off any longer, Kathleen," Rick insisted, urgency in his voice. "They've already attacked a few times already. I need to do something before...before it's too late."

Kathleen gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "My God...you mean, this evil...you've seen it? And it's made several attempts on your _life?"_ When Rick nodded, she wrapped her son-in-law in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Rick, I never imagined things would get this bad. Is Molly in danger too? Has she seen any of it?" As Kathleen stepped away, she reconsidered her words. "Well, seen it firsthand, as she won't admit to having visions..."

"Actually I think she had one," Rick replied, surprising Kathleen. "We just recorded this song she wrote, called 'Love Is Broken.' It worries me."

Kathleen's frown deepened. "You'll have to show me the lyrics. In the meantime, please tell me how I can help you. I don't agree with Molly's denial, but I agree with her on one point – I wish you'd stayed away. Humans have no business fighting evil spirits. I have been against this from the very beginning and now...I sincerely hope you're not doing this alone, at least?"

"Well, define 'alone'..."

"Richard Phillips!" Kathleen interrupted, her temper flaring. "You are my daughter's husband and father of my two young grandchildren. What in the world are you thinking?"

Angered by her judgment, Rick argued, "It was never my choice, Kathleen! From day damn one it was never my choice! My whole life I've seen things no one else did, and I saw these things hurt innocent humans. What was I supposed to do? Should I have shut my eyes and let people suffer, when I was the only one who could help? All of my decisions to help other people led to this. While I'm scared for my life, I refuse to say I would do anything differently. That's exactly what evil wants and you know it."

Beside her, Fiona heard Molly gasp, tears threatening. Fiona had to hold back tears herself. Her father's arguments mirrored her own every time she helped someone. After all the fights with her family over the years, she finally saw their side. Was she headed down the same road? Would there come a day when she couldn't save someone, or herself?

Kathleen nodded slowly, fighting to keep her emotions under control. "I have always known you were a good and noble man. I just hope with all my heart you do not pay the ultimate price for it." They exchanged sad smiles, declaring a silent truce between them. "Come upstairs with me. I have some things that might help you."

Then the scenery around them swirled away in wisps of bright blue smoke.

* * *

Molly held her children close, too overwhelmed to guess where they might end up next. The family held on to each other while blue smoke rolled around them. Molly could only guess they were being taken somewhere, some-when else.

If it was another scene of her past with Rick, she'd rather not see anymore. This was a unusual form of mental torture. The thought of her husband in danger, while she kept her eyes closed and her hands over her ears...she'd never hated herself more. Of course, her instinct was to direct her temper at Rick and Kathleen for conspiring behind her back. But now that she thought about it – now that she _believed_ – what choice did she leave them?

No one said a word until the blue smoke cleared again. It revealed a small living room, decorated with colorful fabrics and a dark purple accent wall. They could see an open kitchen in the back of the room. At first Molly didn't recognize the space, but after a minute, the memory came back to her. "Oh my God. Melinda and Ron's first house."

"What?" Jack asked. "I don't remember this."

"You probably wouldn't. Melinda and your uncle Ron rented in Colorado for a few years before they moved to Seattle. Maggie and Miranda weren't even a thought yet." Molly tensed, remembering they would probably see more of Rick's past. "Stay close, you two. Nothing happened to us before, but we can't be sure of anything."

They became quiet when another scene began. A knock sounded at the front door to their right. Melinda rushed in from the hallway wearing sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, clearly about to go to bed. The sky was dark when she glanced out the living room window. "Who is it?" she called.

"Mel, it's me!"

At the sound of her brother's voice, Melinda gasped and threw open the front door. "Oh my God, Rick? Do you have any idea what time it is?" She still hugged him tightly when he stepped into the living room. He returned it with his free hand...

And held the spellbook in his other arm.

"I know this!" Fiona whispered to her family, emotion in her voice. "Dad's giving the spellbook to Aunt Melinda!"

Just like before, Rick and Melinda couldn't hear or see the newcomers. Melinda raised an eyebrow at the unusual item in her brother's hand. "What's that for?" she asked. "I don't need an old book for my play right now, but I guess I'll hold onto it anyway..."

"It's not a prop, Melinda." Rick went over to the couch and gently placed the book on the coffee table. His sister sat next to him. "This is a real spellbook. It's full of ancient, magical spells that have been passed down for centuries."

Melinda let out a deep sigh. "This again. So what, I'm supposed to believe you stole it from a coven of witches?"

"It's not stolen. A powerful witch gave it to me," Rick made eye contact with his sister. "I got it from Molly's grandmother."

Melinda's jaw dropped. "You're seriously calling your wife's grandmother a witch?"

"She _is_ a witch, Melinda. So is Molly's mother. I'm convinced Molly is too, but she's refused to accept it her entire life."

_He knew,_ Molly thought, wincing and closing her eyes. It wasn't a surprise at this point, only more confirmation. He also recognized "Love Is Broken" as a vision long before she did. It felt like she'd been sleeping for twenty years while the world went on around her. She fought so hard to shut it all out, meanwhile he needed her support. Rick telling her mother he was fighting for his life, alone...Molly would never be able to forgive herself.

Meanwhile, Melinda gave her brother an exasperated glance. "Okay, momentarily ignoring the witch thing, what's this about? Why are you banging on my door at one in the morning?"

"I couldn't let Molly see the book," Rick answered. "And I needed to bring it here. Melinda, you have to do me a very important favor." When she indicated for him to continue, he explained, "I want you to pass this book on to my kids when the time is right. They'll need it in the future. Fiona will probably be the one to inherit the gift, given her family history."

"Why can't _you_ pass it down to your kids?"

"I...I might not be around then."

Confusion in her eyes, Melinda stared at her brother. "I don't understand. Rick, what the hell is going on with you? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"I can't go into detail. Please promise you'll hold on to the book."

"No," Melinda spat, standing up from the couch. "No, this is crazy! Please tell me what the hell is going on! If you don't want Molly to be involved, you have me and Rachel! Just please, please don't do anything stupid!"

"I know what I'm doing! Just promise me you'll keep the book!"

Speechless for a moment, Melinda cleared her throat and wiped tears from her face. "Okay, fine, you can leave it here. I'll make sure nothing happens to it."

Rick visibly relaxed. Leaving the spellbook on the coffee table, he stood up to hug her. "Thank you, Melinda. I love you."

As they broke apart, Melinda gave him a perplexed look. "I love you too, Rick."

He left the house and the world became smoke again.

* * *

Jack recognized the next scene. He looked at the room, then back at his sister and mother, both holding back tears. And he decided enough was enough.

"Alright, that's it!" he shouted upwards. "Whatever the hell is doing this, we're done! None of us should ever see what's coming next!"

Molly wiped away tears as she stood next to her son. "Jack! I hate this too, but yelling at nobody isn't going to work." Something dawned at her and she glanced over at him. "How do you know what comes next? You wouldn't remember this."

"This was your nightmare, wasn't it?" Fiona stared at her bedroom, watching her mother sing her three-year-old self to sleep. "The one we all had when we stayed with Mrs. B's family. You saw Daddy leave that night." She looked at her brother with sympathy in her watery eyes. "You're right, Jack. None of us should have to see this."

"Molly, I'm heading out. I'll be back soon."

They all froze with horror when Rick stopped in the doorway. Alternate Molly kissed the top of her daughter's head before she went to her husband. "Where are you going now?" she asked, her question accusatory. "It's late, Rick."

"I just have to follow a lead. It won't take long."

"Wait!" Molly called. She cringed and looked over at baby Fiona, who didn't stir. She sighed with relief when Rick came back into the room. "Please tell me where you're going," she whispered. "I feel like I never know where you are anymore."

Rick gave her an apologetic frown. "You said you didn't want me to tell you about it."

Present-day Molly winced, the tears flowing again. Jack put an arm around his mother's shoulders. "It's okay, Mom."

"No, it isn't."

"This needs to stop, Rick!" Alternate Molly insisted. "You're going out at all hours meeting with strangers. Then you come back, spend days making mysterious phone calls, and it starts over again! Your mind is God-knows-where-else during rehearsals, if you show up! Do you know I had to convince Ned you weren't drinking? Or worse?"

That was a surprise to Rick. "I didn't, and I'm sorry. But you know I can't stop. It's...it's too late for me to stop."

Alternate Molly stared at him with fear in her eyes. "What does that mean?"

"It means I started something, and now I have to finish it."

Walking up to him, Alternate Molly put her arms around her husband. "Rick, you can't keep doing this. I-it's getting too strange, it's scaring me..."

Jack closed his eyes, knowing what would come next. He couldn't watch his father walk out the door again. He couldn't stand the sight of car keys in his father's hand. The fact that he had to watch the worst night of his life, _twice_...it made him angry. How dare this random evil creature tap into something so personal? Watching his mother cry, his sister sobbing in their mother's arms...God, Fiona had her arm around her stomach, like she was in physical pain...

Respectfully waiting until his father left, Jack turned to his family while Alternate Molly also left the room. Baby Fiona still slept in the background. "Okay, yelling might not work, but we need to do something. I'm not letting this thing drop us off on the side of the road and..."

"Jack!" Molly exclaimed, indicating his crying sister.

"I'm sorry, but if we're following a pattern, that's what's coming next," Jack retorted. "I don't want to see that, and I know you two don't! We need to stop letting this thing drag us around! We're..." He paused, realizing he was about to say something he never had before. "We're witches, aren't we? We need to start fighting back!"

As much as Fiona wanted to curl into a ball on the floor, she realized her brother spoke the truth. She couldn't let this thing beat her down. Her father was somewhere in this hell, trapped, needing their help – even if he did tell them to stay away.

_Somewhere in this hell..._

The phrase switched on a metaphorical light bulb. It was all smoke and mirrors, wasn't it? The Nephalem pulled their surroundings from their past, or their memories, whichever. They needed to see what was really there. These illusions simulated a maze, all designed to conceal the exit. The only way out was through...

_Wait a second._

_Huh, didn't see that coming._

"'In the darkness, is the light,'" Fiona whispered, thinking through the lyrics until she reached the right verse. Molly and Jack stared at her with confusion. The scenery started to change again, but she ignored it. "'I live my life in one straight line, the future ahead and the past behind, now I've hit a wall like I never knew'..."

Catching on, Molly's eyes widened. "'And they tell me that the only way out is through.' My God, it was another vision?"

"I think so. The only way out of here is _through."_

Jack tried to work out what his sister meant. "You mean once the next memory thing is over, we'll find Dad?"

"No. We need to break through ourselves." Fiona grabbed her mother and brother's hands, determined to make up a spell. "A creature here in darkness lies, concealing the truth from our eyes...um, to save a loved one from endless night, we bring forth a more beautiful light."

The swirling blue smoke around them froze in its tracks. Pinholes of light began streaking through the clouds, creating bright pockets that broke up much of the dark.

"Let's say it again," Molly insisted, holding her children's hands tighter. "And say it together."

"_A creature here in darkness lies,_

_concealing the truth from our eyes._

_To save a loved one from endless night, _

_we bring forth a more beautiful light."_

* * *

When the last of the smoke cleared, Fiona and her family stood in a castle. That was Fiona's best guess given the stone walls, tall windows and flickering torches. The first thing she noticed was the absence of a view outside. Despite large windows, the gray corridor was dark and dingy, pitch black replacing the outdoor landscape. "Daddy's here somewhere," she said to her family. "The walls are the same ones we saw before, on the blanket in Aunt Rachel's condo."

"We've got our work cut out for us, then," Jack commented. "Castles are usually pretty huge."

Fiona grinned. "You would know, Sir Jack."

"That's a good point." Jack went over to a sword display on the wall. After testing to see if it could be removed, he easily lifted a sword off the hook. He smiled and gave it a test swing – making sure he was nowhere near his family, of course. "There we go, feels much better than relying on magic. One of you should take the other sword."

Fiona shook her head. "No thanks, I'm better with magic."

"Mom?" Jack asked, pointing to the sword. "Come on. We'd be stupid to leave behind a readily-available weapon."

Molly let out a deep sigh. "My life has come down to this, huh? Magic spells or an actual medieval sword?" She gave her son an unamused glance as she reluctantly took the second sword off the wall. Testing it in her hand, she commented, "Alright, not as heavy as I thought it'd be. Though I wish we had sheaths for these."

"Technically it would be a scabbard, I think," Jack said. "Just make sure you keep the sword pointed at the ground, unless you need to use it."

The reminder made Molly grimace. "Ugh, I just got a gruesome image. Maybe I'm better off with magic too. Not as messy."

"Aunt Rachel would probably use a sword," Fiona said with a laugh. "Did you see her tackle Aunt Melinda? I was impressed!"

They all laughed quietly as they moved through the corridors. Not a soul passed them by. It seemed eerie and deserted. They walked by heavy wooden doors, classic medieval-style furniture, amazing tapestries, and yes – suits of armor. Fiona felt chills on the back of her neck. The Nephalem was here, somewhere. She got the sense they were being observed, lured, pulled closer to the source of the danger. "We're not alone, guys. I don't know how I..."

"It's okay, baby. I feel that too," Molly said, patting her daughters shoulder. "Jack?"

He nodded. "Definitely creeped out here. We need to be ready."

"Welcome, Phillips family. I'm honored to finally meet the famous O'Sianhans."

The man who greeted them looked like he lived in the castle. He wore a long navy jacket embroidered with intricate gold designs, over gold-colored pants and gray boots. Fiona realized right away he wasn't the Nephalem they saw at In Between. This Nephalem, if he was one, had curly brown hair and a larger build.

Jack and Molly immediately picked up their swords, while Fiona tensed and prepared to deflect an attack if necessary. "Where's my father?" she demanded.

"I don't see why that's any of your concern."

No one knew how to answer the man's ridiculous statement. "That's insane!" Molly sputtered. "Of course it's our concern! He's my husband!"

"_Was,"_ the man corrected. "Once a soul passes into the afterlife, it no longer has ties to the human world. As a Nephalem, I firmly believe souls are nothing more than excess energy generated by human death. I can't understand why you'd come all this way just for that."

Fiona's hands clenched at her sides. She desired nothing more than to blast this thing into _its_ next life. Next to her, Jack looked ready to run the sword clean through the stranger. Likewise, Molly seemed ready to use her weapon, regardless of potential gore. "As humans," Fiona spat. "We _value_ our souls. Especially souls of our family members."

The man chuckled. "You're even confused about what _you_ are. Witches are not humans, my dear. I've never understood why witches lower themselves to that level."

"_'Lower_ themselves'?" Jack repeated, his knuckles white on the sword's hilt. "Just once I'd like to meet a supernatural entity without a superiority complex."

Fiona smirked. "Couldn't have said it better myself, bro." She glared at the stranger. "You know who we are. What's your name?"

"Of course, where are my manners? I'm Wren. Allow me to show you around the castle."

* * *

Fiona's best guess was that Wren wanted to distract them. Why else would her father's kidnapper give them a grand tour? While she worried he might be leading them into a trap, she used the opportunity to her advantage. Wren wouldn't show them her father's prison, but she could get a feel for the castle layout and maybe find it herself. They could also grill their host Nephalem while he was feeling chatty.

"So what's your deal, Wren?" Fiona asked, trying to seem casual. "Why go through all this trouble? Kidnapping my dad's soul, putting on that show for us using his past – you must realize we're not here for a nice visit." Jack and Molly raised eyebrows at her, both curious to know where she was going with this. Still, they kept quiet and waited for Wren to answer.

Wren shrugged, unbothered by her accusation. "I'm merely trying to educate you on how things are done in Somius."

"In _where?"_ Molly asked.

"See?" Wren asked with an amused chuckle. "You don't even know where you are. It's a dimension humans can only access in dreams. Souls often end up here as well, which is why I've made it my home. Lost souls are a convenient power source."

Jack glared at Wren. "My father isn't a lost soul. You took him from us."

"No, you've misunderstood. It was never supposed to be with you in the first place. This particular soul stepped over the line between worlds – in life, and in death. _That_ is why I went out of my way to acquire it."

"Rick's soul isn't an 'it,'" Molly retorted. Like her son, she gripped her sword tightly and would gladly use it at a moment's notice.

"I disagree," Wren replied calmly. "As previously stated, souls are only energy, and Nephalem need this energy to survive. I guess the closest comparison would be humans and their reliance on food."

The statement made the Phillips family stop in their tracks. All wore expressions of equal disgust and horror. "You _are_ a monster!" Fiona yelled. "You really didn't think we would be upset by this? You're going to eat my father's soul!"

Her outburst failed to disturb Wren's placid demeanor. He only turned back when he realized they weren't following him. "Oh, not me personally," he answered. "As it turns out, Richard Phillips' soul is quite valuable to multiple parties. I don't really understand myself, but if someone's willing to bargain for it, I'll accept the highest bid. I only wanted to make sure the balance was restored."

Overwhelmed by anger, Fiona spat, "What _balance?"_ It took every last ounce of willpower she had not to incinerate the being on the spot. Really, would it be so bad? They could find her father on their own. Even more tempting, she knew with certainty her family would help her finish the Nephalem off.

Her mother literally shook with suppressed fury. Jack stepped forward, ready to strike.

They all looked up when Ambrose turned a corner and entered the hallway, standing behind Wren. Nodding at his colleague, Wren answered Fiona's question. "The balance between worlds, Fiona. They must remain separate – it is crucial to our survival. Your father's meddling is a danger to everyone. However, I'm now seeing that you will not be convinced. With no other choice, I must take action."

Ambrose stood next to Wren, the two Nephalem side by side across the corridor. "You traveled here for one human soul," Wren said, finally allowing a sneer. "Now you may all perish along with it."

Before Fiona and her family could attack, everything around them disappeared.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Jack was so sick of being dragged around. First his mother and sister _conjure_ him across the country (the best way he could describe it). Then he's thrown from one nightmarish scene to the next like a freaking ping pong ball.

Now his father's kidnapper literally tossed him in prison. After the day he'd had, Jack looked forward to when he could stay put for a while.

But first he needed to escape said prison. Clearly.

"Okay, that worked out well," he said, earning glares from his sister and mother. They stood in a large room filled with the same blue clouds from before. A wall to his right seemed to go on infinitely in either direction. The clouds obstructed the other three walls, if they existed, or anything else that might have been around them. Their two swords had disappeared. "Now what's our plan?" Jack asked. "You know any escape spells?"

"No, this can't be real. It's another illusion."

Jack heard his father's voice and immediately thought the same thing. "Dad?"

"Daddy?" Fiona shouted. "Daddy, it's us!"

They all turned when Rick stepped towards them through the clouds. He was transparent this time. "Dad," Jack whispered.

"Rick!" Molly exclaimed, running over to him. "Oh God, I want to hug you right now but..."

Rick smiled, understanding what she meant. "If this is an illusion, I think I'm okay with it."

Fiona laughed. "It's really us! We were in New York with Aunt Rachel and Aunt Melinda when we heard you were in trouble. Eventually we found this place called In Between and we followed Ambrose into the portal..."

"Oh my God, no," Rick whispered, fear in his eyes. "It really is you. I told you all not to come for me! You should have stayed home!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at his family. "When did _that_ happen?" He noticed Fiona's upset expression and sighed, putting his arm around her shoulders. They weren't used to their father being angry at them. He couldn't be more grateful for these moments, but at the same time, it was very odd to have a conversation with his entire family.

"Um, we cast a spell," Molly answered, equally surprised by Rick's outburst. "Look, Rick, I get that you wanted to protect us. But you did you really think we could leave you here? If I can use my magic to save you, I'll damn well do it! What else is it good for then?"

Her children stared at her with wide eyes, and even Rick's jaw dropped slightly. "I-I'm sorry, Molly." He gave her a small apologetic smile. "I guess I have to remind myself how much you've changed. I'm so proud of you."

Molly could barely speak, tears already running down her face. "Thank you, so much. It means the world to hear you say that. But...but I'm the one who should apologize to you, Rick. On the way here we sort of, stopped by the past and saw a few things."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry you all had to to go through that," Rick replied. "From what I understand it's Ambrose's specialty. All Nephalem can manipulate Somius and show humans their past, but he's particularly good at it. He probably did it just to delay you...causing excessive, unimaginable pain in the process."

"How I saw the past doesn't change _what_ I saw," Molly insisted. "Rick...y-you were all alone, fighting for your life, while I shut you out. I can never forgive myself for that."

He grimaced from emotional pain. "No, don't apologize. Things were different back then, but Molly, I realize now that you were the smart one."

"No..."

"Yes," Rick interrupted. "We fought about my investigations, but...if you went with me that night, Fiona and Jack wouldn't have had either of us. I couldn't change the track I was on, but you were right to stay off it. I'm forever grateful you were able to be there when I couldn't."

Tears in his own eyes, Jack hugged his sister, both a wreck after their parents' apologies. Somehow, Fiona managed to find her voice. "Daddy?"

"Yes, baby?" Rick asked.

"Where were you going that night?" Fiona blurted, taking a step closer to her father. She put a hand on her mother's shoulder. "No one knew, and we didn't see it in the memories."

Rick nodded as if he'd been expecting the question. "I knew this would come up. I'm so sorry I never told your mother. I guess it's one of those things...you never realize how important a single moment will be."

"Rick?" Molly said, encouraging him to continue.

"I was going to see some of your mother's contacts," Rick said, looking at Molly. "She knew a coven near Hope Springs. She'd already called them and set up a meeting. My goal was to convince them to send me into Medius. If they went with me as backup, even better, but I wasn't counting on it."

Jack, Fiona and Molly stayed quiet for a minute, processing the long-awaited answer. While he didn't know how his family felt, Jack realized it never _really_ mattered where his father was going. Not now that they knew how he died. The demon would have attacked another time if Rick didn't go out that particular night.

The only difference was the target of Jack's anger. He couldn't blame the universe and God-awful timing anymore. Now he reserved his loathing just for the demons.

* * *

They found the door they'd seen in Rachel's condo. Molly sighed, knowing she'd never expected to be on this side of it. Naturally the witches and ghost tried everything within their power to break it open. Rick remembered a few spells himself, so the family spent hours casting them, creating new ones, saying them all together.

Nothing worked. The door remained standing, completely unchanged by their efforts. It was infuriating for all involved.

"_Thania!"_ Fiona finally shouted, directing every last bit of her power at the door. A stream of fire blasted from her fingertips but dissipated on contact. The smooth but cloudy glass seemed to be mocking them at this point.

Jack gave her an amused glance. "That was the first spell we tried."

"I know. It just felt good, okay?"

The siblings shared a laugh, all of them delirious from exhaustion and fear. They didn't have forever to escape. Eventually Wren would take Rick's soul and leave the mortal captives there to die. Molly's mind went a step further, realizing they'd _become_ souls and suffer the same fate as Rick. As much as she wanted more time with the love of her life, they couldn't linger there. All four of them needed to escape while they had the chance.

"There must be another way out," she said, glaring at the door – as if the slab of glass would register her anger. Too bad the swords disappeared. She doubted the ordinary weapon would do any good, but she'd love to try anyway.

Rick stared at Molly. "That's it! Another door! Or at least another exit, somewhere in this wasteland here. We haven't explored all of it. I've tried, but in the time I've been here I haven't seen the whole space."

"No offense you two, but it sounds like wishful thinking," Jack argued. "Wren isn't stupid enough to have a back door. One that we can find and break open, anyway."

After another minute of silent contemplation, Fiona's eyes widened. "We can make our own door! We've traveled between worlds on our own! We didn't need a portal to get to Medius, all we needed was a spell. We have to hope our magic is stronger than what's holding us here." She frowned. "Unlikely given our track record, but still worth trying."

"Okay, I'm with you on that one," Jack conceded. "But why Medius? Why not just..._zap_ us all back home?" When Molly and Fiona indicated Rick's transparent form, Jack gave his father an apologetic frown. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, Dad."

Rick chuckled. "It's okay, Jack. Technically I can exist in the human world too, but it requires much more power. You've seen how difficult it is," he said to Molly and Fiona, who nodded. "I'd love to tell you all to go anyway, to leave me here so you can be free..."

"Not on your life, Rick," Molly snapped, then grimaced at her choice of words. Her family smirked at her. "Oh, stop it, you all know what I meant." Secretly she felt a warmth inside, despite the chilly air. For a moment it almost felt like he was alive again.

Rick smiled at her. "I was going to say that I think Medius is the better choice anyway. It's more open to incoming magic. I can also find my way back to the spirit realm from there."

"But what about Wren?" Jack asked, glancing at his father. "Don't we have to defeat him? We can't leave him here when he's going to come after us."

Fiona nodded. "After what he did, we gotta kick some Nephalem butt!"

"Are they right, Rick?" Molly asked, her fear growing the more she thought of it. Would they be safe if they escaped? What would stop Wren from hunting them all down? "Will he come after us when he realizes we're gone?"

To their surprise, Rick shook his head. "Nephalem are supernatural creatures, which means they have limited power in the human world. Wren knows that if he tracks you down on your turf, he's much less powerful than he is here. You three would crush him in the human world – and he's well aware of that. You should be safe as long as you don't venture into Somius again."

"Why are you looking at me?" Fiona asked with confusion.

"I know you, Fi. Once you've discovered something, you don't leave it alone." Rick grinned at her. "You get that from me."

Tears were in Fiona's eyes when she replied. "You don't have to worry, Dad. The last thing I want is to come back here."

"Now what about you?" Molly challenged. "What's stopping Wren from capturing you again?" When Rick didn't answer, she sighed. "Then we have to fight him, Rick. I won't allow this to happen again."

He looked at his family, faced with three equally-determined, unrelenting expressions. Cornered, he slowly nodded in acceptance. "I'll take measures to protect myself, but you can't fight Wren. He is a Nephalem, not a demon. He has allies on the side of good and they will punish you for retaliating."

"What?" Fiona exclaimed. "That makes no sense! How can he be good when he kidnapped your soul? And three _good_ witches?"

"I'll give you that capturing you three probably crosses a line..."

"_Probably?"_ Molly exclaimed, Fi and Jack expressing their agreement.

"Unfortunately it's not as outrageous as you'd think. Wren and beings like him are all about _the balance._ The four of us have been upsetting that balance for a long time."

Jack frowned. "So you're saying we're not very popular in the magical community."

"Afraid not," Rick confirmed. "At least, not with those who are strict about the balance. Others would give everything to support us. Defeating Wren will open a can of worms, and there's no way to predict the consequences."

There was a quiet moment while his family struggled to accept these facts. Refocusing on the present, Molly asked Rick, "What will you do, then? If we escape to Medius, how will you protect yourself from Wren?"

Rick gave her an unreadable look, filled with mixed emotions. "I've given this some thought, and...I think it might be time to cross over."

"What does that mean?" Jack asked, bewildered. "This seems like the after life to me."

Rick shook his head. "No, all of these dimensions are only a stopping point, a transition. There is a place beyond all this. I've been avoiding it for thirteen years."

* * *

It made sense, it really did. Her father was in danger and this was the only way he could be safe. Not to mention, after thirteen years, he should move on.

Fiona still hated it. She felt like she was allowed.

As odd as all this was, Fiona finally had her own memories of her father. If he crossed over...she wouldn't even have that anymore. She would really have to say good-bye forever. How could she go through with this, knowing she would lose her father all over again? She knew they couldn't stay in Wren's prison, but she was so happy to be with her dad. Maybe she could extend their time together when they got to Medius.

Since she couldn't tell her father not to go, Fiona focused on the task at hand. The family stood together while they planned the spell. "Dad, how is this spell going to work? Mom, Jack and I can cast it ourselves, but you can't...right?"

"No, so you will all have to concentrate on bringing me with you," Rick answered. "Normally to bring someone along, all you'd have to do is hold their hand. I can't even do that, so we'll have to improvise a little. I think it should work."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You _think _it _should_ work? I don't like those odds."

"I'm with Jack on this," Molly said. "Is there a way to guarantee it? Maybe we can all hold hands and you can stand in the middle?"

Rick frowned. "Not a good idea. Typically that signifies an intention to _send_ the target somewhere. I don't want to mess up the spell on a technicality." At their frustrated looks, he added, "I really think we'll be okay as long as I stand with you."

"And you can say the spell with us," Fiona pointed out. When her family gave her doubtful glances, she explained, "Hey, it helped when Aunt Melinda and Aunt Rachel said the spell, didn't it? I know these aren't the same circumstances, but it might make a difference. At the very least it won't hurt."

Fiona and Molly went through the spell's Latin words a few times, helping Jack and Rick pronounce them correctly. When the spell was ready, the family stood in a circle. The three witches didn't hold hands since it would symbolically leave Rick out. Fiona tried to clear all negativity from her mind – something she learned from her grandmother. A spell would never work if one of the casters didn't truly want it to work. For the moment, Fiona needed to put aside her desire to spend more time with her father. Their safety was more important.

She comforted herself with the thought that he would go to Medius with him. They'd all have a little more time.

They began chanting the spell in perfect unison, a little hesitant at first but steadily growing stronger. Clouds moved clockwise around them after the first run-through. They kept repeating the spell, watching as the deep blue clouds became lighter and lighter. The clouds became so bright that Fiona could no longer see the long wall and glass door. She shut her eyes against the blinding, blue-tinted light, continuing to chant the spell without interruption. Everything in her wanted to make sure her family was okay, but she knew she couldn't stop.

"...u-ut modo nobis est Medius!" Fiona shouted, yelling to cover up her fear. She started the spell again without taking a breath. "Volumus ad locum..."

"Fiona!"

She froze at the sound of her mother's voice. Her eyes flew open, though her sight was blurry after the light. "Mom? Is everyone okay? Jack, Daddy?" She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her brother, and her father...

...who was now in solid, human form. Rolling purple mist and gray clouds surrounded him – the landscape of Medius.

They'd escaped. They outsmarted Wren, for now, and saved their lost family member's soul.

The first thing she did was hug her father.

* * *

All thoughts of returning home flew out of Molly's head. They were safe, and Rick was with them. What more did she need?

She waited patiently while Jack also hugged Rick, tears in the teenager's eyes as he reluctantly stepped away. "I still can't believe all this sometimes," Jack said, smiling wide. "For once, I'm glad I was wrong. I'm glad it's all real."

Fiona went in for another hug, and Rick put his free arm around Jack. Molly grinned at the picture and wished she had the power to conjure a camera. Her kids pulled her into the hug so they all huddled together. Molly knew with certainty that, if given the choice, they would have stayed like that forever.

Since someone had to move, Jack stepped back and nudged his sister. "Come on, Fi. Let's, uh, go explore, make sure the coast is clear. There could be some Ora around."

"What? Are you crazy, Jack? We never get to..." She trailed off when Jack not-so-subtly nodded at their parents. "Oh. Yeah, okay. Mom, Dad, we'll be back." She grinned back at them as she trailed after her brother.

Molly laughed and put her arms around Rick's waist. "That was sweet."

"Yeah, when did our kids get to be so grown-up?" Rick hugged her back and she rested her head on his shoulder. "They're observant, and considerate, and _so_ smart, both of them. You did an amazing job."

Tears in her eyes, Molly held on to her husband tighter. "I needed you, Rick. I still need you. It doesn't matter that they're older now. Whenever something comes up, I wonder what you would have said, how you have reacted. None of this was easy. When Fiona started investigating..." She paused, remembering one of her decisions with guilt. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell her about your past. It's not that I was ashamed of you. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think I was afraid. Subconsciously I knew what would happen if she kept going and..."

"I understand, Molly," Rick insisted. "Honestly, I don't know how I would have handled it either. I would have wanted to share my passion, but also worried about keeping her safe. It was a tough call to make."

Molly felt the relief through her entire body, finally free of a burden she'd carried for years. It always bothered her that she kept Rick's past a secret. While he forgave her, it brought up another painful subject. "I know what you said before, but I'm still sorry for how much we fought at the end. I can't apologize enough for that. If I had just...opened my mind a little..."

"Then we would _both_ be dead," Rick insisted. He held Molly had arm's length so they could look at each other. "I was the one being selfish and stubborn, Molly. _Me,_ not you. I was so wrapped up in the supernatural world that I neglected everyone around me...even our kids. I feel so awful that I wasn't there for Fiona and Jack towards the end, at least, not as much as I should have been. Pursuing leads just seemed so urgent.

I convinced myself I was doing what I did to protect them, to make the world safer for them. In reality, _I_ put the responsibility on my shoulders." Rick paused, tears in own eyes, his face filled with guilt. "Please forgive _me._ You, Fiona and Jack were always more important. I never should have let this take me away from you."

Stunned, Molly couldn't respond for a minute, struggling to accept Rick's confession. How could he deal with these terrible thoughts for so long? Was it why he'd never moved on? "It wasn't your choice, Rick," she insisted. "None of what happened was your fault. _Evil_ took you away from us. Even before I believed in this, I blamed the universe more than I blamed you. I just wanted you back."

Then Rick kissed her. Molly returned it with equal passion, never wanting it to end. This could be their very last.

"Oh, uh...Fi, let's keep exploring."

"Right behind you, bro."

As their kids ran off again, Molly and Rick broke apart, sadness in their eyes even as they laughed at the interruption. Though she wanted more time, she called after her children while they were still within earshot. "Fiona, Jack, wait!"

"Yeah, come on you two." Rick gave them all a sad smile. "You need to get home. Jack was right, it's not entirely safe here either."

The family froze when a bright doorway appeared in front of them. Molly instinctively knew what it meant. "Oh my God, Rick, is that..."

"Yes, Molly. It's time."

* * *

A male figure appeared next to the glowing doorway. Fiona gasped, instantly recognizing him. Before her family could ask questions, she blurted, "Daddy...d-do you know who that is?"

Rick nodded. "He and I have been crossing paths for a long time. You know him too, Fiona, don't you?"

Fiona went over to her father and hugged him around his waist. "I saw him once, over a year ago. He told me Jack's girlfriend was sick."

"I always wondered about that," Jack whispered.

"Me too," Molly confessed. "I never, _ever_ would've admitted this back then, but I thought it might have been a vision. Was it, technically?"

"It was a message."

The man spoke. Everyone gave him their undivided attention, though Fiona stayed close to her father. She only heard his voice over the phone that one time. Even now he didn't really _speak._ They could hear the words but his lips didn't move.

Her eyes wide, Fiona gripped her father's arm tighter. She was afraid. While this man turned out to be helpful last time, she still didn't trust him. Fiona let out a deep breath and steadied her nerves. "W-what's the difference? Between a message and a vision, I mean."

The voice responded. "Visions are a combination of the individual and the universe. Some from within and some from without. Messages are always sent by an angel."

Stepping closer to his family, Jack gave the angel a wary look. "So you're an angel. Are you one of the 'good' beings that support what Wren did?" His mother glanced at him, her eyebrow raised, slightly nervous he'd dared to ask that question. Fiona was proud of her brother. After everything Jack contributed so far, she felt justified insisting he come along.

To Fiona's surprise, the angel smiled. His voice replied soon after. "No, I'm not. Your father was correct in saying Wren has many good allies. However, Wren has been testing limits for quite some time. No one approves of targeting Rick's soul, never mind capturing all of you."

"What?" Rick asked, startled by the angel's answer. "But...isn't that what Nephalem do? I was just another energy source for him."

"Usually, yes. Sometimes Nephalem even target malevolent souls to prevent further disaster. _Those_ are the Nephalem with strong allies on our side. Wren has always been right on the border, but targeting you will cost him most of the support he had left. He clearly values his own power over anything else."

Molly put a hand on Rick's shoulder, her brow wrinkled as she sorted through the new information. "I'm grateful Wren will be punished, but...why..."

Fiona knew exactly what her mother was trying to ask. _They_ all thought her father was special, but what role did he play in this? "Why would targeting Dad cost Wren so much? I'm happy about it, don't get me wrong, but it leads to more questions."

"As it should," the angel's voice said. He stared at Rick as he continued. "Rick, you have been our ally ever since you were alive. Even in death you protect your family and continue fighting evil forces. While we didn't approve of your extended time as a ghost, you made it difficult for us to pressure you about it. You were almost like a secret weapon – even evil never knew what to expect from you."

Molly chuckled while Rick looked embarrassed. "Sounds about right," she joked.

Meanwhile, Fiona concentrated on putting the pieces together as quickly as possible. "So...when I fell off the roof and Dad saved me..."

"Yes, Fiona, we gave him the ability to pull you up. But that was about both of you, not just your father. It wasn't your time yet."

"Wait a second, Dad isn't supposed to be a ghost?" Jack contemplated his choice of words. "That's an odd question, even after everything I've seen tonight." His family smiled at him, sharing the sentiment. This had to be one of the weirdest days Fiona ever experienced – and that was saying a lot.

The angel smiled briefly before answering. "No one is destined to be a ghost forever. It is a transitional phase. We prefer all souls move on quickly, but the majority linger due to unresolved issues. Rick's case was only unique because he needed to protect his living family from supernatural forces. It's also why we did not push him. We didn't plan for this, but once we saw that you were much safer, we allowed the situation to run its course."

Molly put her arms around Rick. The family stood connected – Fiona still circled his waist, and Jack had an arm around all three. Each of them knew what would soon follow. "Has it?" Molly asked. "'Run its course'?"

The angel nodded. "You are all capable of protecting yourselves now. In fact, his existence as a ghost put you in danger..."

"That's not his fault!" Logically speaking, Fiona didn't want him to be stuck as a ghost. But emotionally...she could feel her father slipping away. She wanted more time. She would always want more time. Tears formed as she hugged her father. "You can't blame him for what Wren did! This was one time after everything he's done to protect us! For years he's kept us safe – you said it yourself! We need him!"

Molly and Jack stepped back for the moment while Rick comforted his daughter. "He speaks the truth, Fiona." Rick continued even as his daughter shook her head in denial. "This might be one incident, but you all proved how powerful you are on your own. What you've accomplished as witches will not go unnoticed. No one else could have done what you did to rescue me, and it's a sign that...you can handle anything."

"B-but we still need you," Fiona insisted. Molly and Jack agreed with her, tears in their own eyes as they watched the emotional exchange.

"Fiona...I promise, if this was only about protecting you, I would stay forever," Rick assured her. "But what happened today is only the beginning. Evil will take their cue from Wren and try to use me as bait. I would never forgive myself if you were hurt, or worse, on another rescue mission. Please try to understand where I'm coming from. I don't want to leave you all, but it's the safest choice for everyone."

Jack stepped forward and put an arm around his sister's shoulders. "I hate this too, Fi," he assured her. "I finally start believing, and I have to lose Dad all over again. But I think we need to be grateful for the extra time we've had. Today alone was a miracle – we actually got to hang out with our dad! Sure, we were prisoners for the most part, but I'd say it was worth the risk."

"This time," Molly said sadly. "We were lucky today. As much as I want your father to stay with us, I would never risk you two to make that happen."

Fiona knew in heart they all made sense. The fight left her, giving way to more tears. "I just miss you so much, Daddy."

"I miss you too, Fiona." Rick hugged her tight. "I love you, so much."

"I love you too," she replied through her sobs. Knowing it would be the last hug she received from her father, Fiona held on, unsure she would ever be able to let go. She relented when she saw how upset Jack and her mother were, both eager for their hugs – and dreading them at the same time.

Fiona hugged her mother while Jack hugged his father, too emotional to say much. "I'm so proud of you," Rick said through his own tears. "For protecting your family, and accepting so many changes. You're more like me than you realize, Jack. It's not only Fiona. I know that bothers you sometimes and I wanted to make sure you heard it from me."

"Thank you, Dad," Jack whispered. Like Fiona he didn't want to let go, but he moved next to his sister when their mother stepped forward.

"I don't know what to say," Molly confessed as she wrapped her arms around Rick. "We've said a lot, things I only thought when I was alone at night. I never expected I'd get to say them to you. All that's left is...I love you, Rick. I've never stopped loving you and I never will."

When their parents kissed, Fiona and Jack couldn't help looking on, knowing it would be the last time they saw their parents together. Then Rick was walking away, towards the angel and his destiny. Fiona didn't trust herself to say another word. Her family stood together, holding onto each other, helpless to stop him from leaving. They could only remind themselves their loved one would finally be at peace.

Rick stopped at the doorway and turned back. His expression said everything – how much he loved them, how proud he was of everything they'd done. Rick joined the angel at the door, and the two walked into the light together.


	10. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

While Rachel didn't know how she got there, she recognized her surroundings instantly. She stood in her childhood backyard. Her family had an acre of Colorado land, so she used to run wild with Rick and Melinda. In front of her was the tiny stream, really a trickle of water through the property, much too shallow to swim in. Instead they pretended it was everything...a moat for a castle, the deepest ocean, the setting for a pirate showdown...

"Seemed bigger back then, didn't it?"

Rachel whirled around to find Melinda next to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same," Melinda answered, her arms crossed. "What are you doing in my dream? This is a dream, isn't it?"

That made the most sense. After everything Rachel experienced recently, having the same dream as her sister seemed tame. "I'm a little nervous now," she confessed. "What if this is connected to Nephalem? One of the books said they can manipulate dreams."

"Don't be afraid, Rachel. You aren't here because of a Nephalem."

The sisters gasped in near-unison, stunned by their brother's voice. "Ricky?" Rachel called, both looking around frantically. "Where are..."

He stood a few feet away from them, staring out at the water. "Rick," Melinda whispered with tears in her eyes. "Is this real? Are you...you? Or is this just a dream?"

"It's me. I'm sending you a message." This time they noticed something odd – his mouth didn't move when he spoke. Rachel figured it must have been a dream quirk. She couldn't care about that when her brother was right there...

Wait, was he _real_? Could she...

Rachel hesitantly stepped forward. Old habits kicked in and she playfully punched his arm, testing to see if he was real. She grinned when he raised an eyebrow at her and rubbed his shoulder. "What was that?" his voice asked.

"A test. You passed." Rachel hugged him tight, tears running down her face as she reunited with her twin brother. "How is this possible?" she muttered through her tears.

After realizing Rick was really there, Melinda rushed forward and hugged them both. "Oh my God," she said as they all stepped back. "How are you here? I guess Molly meant it when she said you were at peace. You are at peace, right?" Molly, Fiona and Jack appeared back at the condo well after midnight, almost closer to sunrise. They promised details after a few hours of desperately-needed sleep.

"I am, but I couldn't leave for good without seeing you," Rick's voice explained. "You both made sacrifices to save me, while enduring a great deal of emotional turmoil. My superiors agreed that you deserved a reward." Before they could ask more questions, he continued. "And it didn't seem fair. You went through all this hoping you could see me again. We should get our good-byes too."

Rachel nodded slowly, not trusting her own voice at first. The emotion overwhelmed her. "W-well...I guess we'll get the details from Molly and the kids. I'm just so happy you're okay. Melinda and I were worried sick when we saw you before."

"So Rick, why did you choose our old backyard? Nostalgia?" Melinda asked, gesturing to their picturesque surroundings.

"Yes. I tried to think of a place that meant something to all three of us. This stuck out in my mind." Rick shrugged, glancing back at the stream. "You're right, Melinda. It's smaller than I remember. I guess we were smaller then too."

Rachel let out a long sigh as she crossed her arms. "We had big imaginations back then, but none of us could've imagined all _this._ We were so _normal_ when we were kids."

"What childhood are you remembering?" Melinda argued with a smirk. "On the surface, yeah, our lives were normal. But we never fit in. It was worse for me because you two had each other." At Rachel's confused look, she explained, "People always told us we were old souls, remember? We noticed _everything_ and constantly got into trouble."

Grimacing, Rachel closed her eyes for a second. Melinda's reminder brought back a flood of unwanted childhood memories – most of them embarrassing and painful. She usually tried to forget all the work it took to develop her lawyer polish. Even then, she was still too opinionated, too curious, too insightful. Her assistant insisted she had psychic abilities...

_Oh._

Rachel's eyes snapped open as she gasped. When her siblings gave her confused glances, she explained, "That's it, isn't it? 'The sight,' or whatever you call it, that _other_ sense Ricky and Fiona share. What everyone says Mel and I have too. We've all been using it in different ways, haven't we? Mel and her acting, you and the paranormal..." She let out a deep breath. "Me and my law career. We always knew things we shouldn't know, saw what we couldn't have seen."

"Oh my God," Melinda whispered, looking to Rick for confirmation. "She's right, isn't she? Everyone always says how good I am at interpreting character motivation, how I _become_ characters. I'm not bragging either...it's exhausting, draining. Especially if I'm rehearsing with really good actors."

Rick smiled at their realizations. "This is one of the reasons I'm here. We've used our heightened senses our whole lives without knowing it. Once I learned of this sense, I opened myself to it. I was able to see paranormal phenomenon more than ever before..."

"And it led to your death," Rachel pointed out, too upset to apologize for her bluntness. Melinda raised an eyebrow but didn't interrupt. "Don't get me wrong, talking to you is an amazing gift. But if I open myself to this...if _we_ open ourselves...we'll face the same dangers as Molly, Jack and Fi. I'd do anything to help those three, but God, I don't know how they deal with it all."

To her relief, Rick didn't seem upset by her accusations. "I understand why you would feel that way, especially after everything you've experienced. But it's different for you two because you're not as involved. I chose to pursue those cases and find things...even when it might've been ill-advised."

Rachel instantly felt guilty for blaming him. "Don't do that to yourself, Rick. You couldn't have known where all this would lead." She sighed, realizing she'd contradicted her own argument. "So I guess I can't either. Alright, I'll try, but I can't promise I'll like it."

Her siblings laughed. "I'm interested in this, actually," Melinda said. "Maybe we can learn to control it to an extent. Where do we start?"

"Molly's mother would be able to guide you," Rick explained. "You won't have abilities like Molly, Fi and Jack, but you'll be more aware of the sight while you're experiencing it. And yes, possibly control the intensity." He gave his sisters a proud smile. "I'm so glad you're accepting who you are. Despite everything thrown at you, you've both been strong, always determined to save me. I can't say enough how grateful I am."

Tears in their eyes, Rachel and Melinda needed a moment before they could speak. Rachel didn't even know what to say. This was amazing to her because, after a lifetime of talking nonstop, she couldn't come up with the right words. How could she say something when it might be the last thing she said to her brother?

All this was why Melinda replied first. "There's nothing to be grateful for, Rick," she said through her tears. "We're your sisters. Of course we'll do anything to save you."

"Even get possessed by a Will 'o the Wisp," Rick teased. "I've seen a lot of weird things...but really, Mel? How did any of you think that was a good idea?"

Rachel laughed despite her watery eyes. "We didn't, I assure you. Molly was ready to cast a spell on her to make her stop. I personally would've enjoyed seeing that."

"Of course _you_ would," Melinda retorted defensively. "I can only imagine what you would've done to me with witch powers when we were kids. As it is I remember you knocking me into that stream over there _plenty_ of times..."

"Oh stop, you loved it! We were playing! And Ricky pushed you way more than I did."

"I did not!" Rick teased back, enjoying their argument. "It was usually both of us, and you were always the instigator..."

"Only because Mel would never leave me alone..."

"What else was I supposed to do?" Melinda cut in. "You two were always conspiring and using that stupid code. It was self-defense ninety-percent of the time..."

"And the other ten?"

The three of them happily continued bickering in their old backyard, reliving the best moments of their childhood.

* * *

Rachel woke up in her bed way too soon. Why did the dream have to end?

A message, Rick had called it. Did it really happen? She needed to ask Melinda about for confirmation. After that amazing experience, she wanted to talk about it right then and there.

But it would have to wait until later. A quick glanced at the clock showed it was almost eight. While she normally woke up that early, even on the weekend, she knew everyone would need more sleep after their eventful night. She could use another hour or two herself.

Afraid she might forget the dream, Rachel wrote a few quick notes in the notebook she kept in her nightstand. Then she went back to sleep.

* * *

Fiona loved hearing about her aunts' dream over their late breakfast. It made her so happy knowing the siblings also got to say good-bye. At the same time she felt sadness in her heart, already missing her father's ghostly presence in her life. She worried about losing the connection she'd formed in recent years.

But then again, wasn't that why she'd searched for him? She never had any memories of him growing up. Now at least...at least she had this. Rescuing him led to more time with her father than she ever could imagine. Fiona would repeat those moments on an endless loop in her mind until she could recite them word for word. Briefly she wondered if there was a spell to record memories – if not, maybe she could create one.

Since no one had any energy to do anything, they spent the morning catching up. Jack had crashed on the big club chair in Rachel's living room. After falling asleep sitting upright, he wandered around the condo while they talked, hoping to loosen stiff joints. Meanwhile, Rachel and Melinda recapped going home after In Between. For the most part it was uneventful, with Rachel tending to her sister's bruises. They tried to wait up but couldn't make it. Rachel almost fell asleep in the chair herself, shuffling off to her bed sometime after one.

A short time later, Molly and Fiona sent Jack home the magical way. It would be excessive to buy a last-minute plane ticket. On the other hand, Molly and Fiona had round-trip tickets, so they needed to fly home the regular way. As much as Fiona wanted to be home, she didn't mind this so much. She actually wanted her life to return to normal – whatever that was. Using a plane instead of magic would be a good first step.

As she rolled her suitcase out to the living room, Fiona saw that her mother already stacked their other bags up near the couch. Molly, Melinda and Rachel sat around the kitchen, having one last cup of coffee before they left for the airport. "I would never usually drink coffee before a flight," Molly was saying. "But I'm so tired, I'll still fall right asleep as soon as we board. This will keep me going until then."

"Same here," Fiona said, joining the conversation. "Any chance you'll let me in on that coffee?"

Rachel shook her head. "You're too young. As for me, I've stopped growing and need several cups just to function."

"Strange, isn't it?" Melinda wondered aloud. "Fi's too young for coffee, but she's old enough to go into another dimension and fight evil."

After everyone considered this for a minute, Rachel gave her niece a stubborn look. "I don't care. You're still not getting coffee."

They all burst into laughter. Recovering first, Molly said, "I really am sorry for ruining our weekend. We should've gone out for every meal, shopped a _lot_ more and maybe squeezed in a spa day. Instead..."

"We got to see Rick again," Melinda pointed out, refusing Molly's apology. "It was a great weekend, Molly. Not what we planned, but we're all much closer because of it. Wasn't that the point in the first place?"

Fiona smiled at her mother. "Aunt Melinda's right, Mom. We didn't do most of what we'd planned, but I wouldn't trade this weekend for anything."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Molly grumbled. She glanced at Melinda with guilt all over her face. "Are you sure your arm's okay? Again, I'm so, _so_ sorry about that."

Melinda answered by moving her bent arm in a slow circle. "See? Full range of motion. _Relax_, I'm glad you kicked that pest while you had the chance."

"'Pest' is a nicer word than I would've used," Rachel commented.

"Not while Fiona's around to hear it. She might be a powerful witch now, but she's still a teenager and my niece."

Soon after, they began saying their good-byes. Rachel was driving them to the airport, but things would be too chaotic once they arrived. As for Melinda, she had rehearsal before that night's performance and couldn't go with them. While she admitted to feeling a little sore, she didn't want to miss another day.

"You have to come visit me, Ron and the kids next," Melinda insisted as she hugged Fiona. "Maybe we can redo this trip. Rachel, you should come too."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "I'd love to see them, but after the chaos this weekend..."

Slightly annoyed, Melinda waved a dismissive hand. "Molly, please stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault. You're family and I want you to visit, end of story."

"Alright then," Molly replied with a smile. The two sisters-in-law hugged good-bye. "We'll set up something soon, I promise. Rachel, let us know when you're free."

As she hugged Fiona, Rachel said, "Sounds great. Now that I've seen Fi and Jack, it's only fair to visit my other nieces. It's been way too long since I've flown out...or left New York, really."

"That's because you work too hard," Fiona teased, her aunt's arm still around her shoulders. She glanced over at her mother. "Can we visit Aunt Melinda soon? We haven't seen the twins in over a year!"

"I'll have to check the tour schedule, but we should be able to squeeze in a weekend."

"It'll be easier now that you don't need a plane," Melinda teased.

Fiona and Molly exchanged surprised looks. "Um, are you sure about that, Aunt Melinda? Won't Uncle Ron and the twins have a lot of questions?"

"I-I can't keep this from them," Melinda confessed, suddenly emotional. "I can't keep a secret as big as this one from my husband and kids. If you don't want me to tell them...I can try, but I would never feel good about it. I'd probably make myself sick over it."

Fiona felt bad her aunt worried about something that wasn't even an issue – she didn't like keeping secrets either. It was a relief that she could share this with her cousins, who loved her website and the paranormal by extension. (Sometimes Fiona wondered if her cousins _only_ liked the paranormal because their 'cool older cousin' did.) She wouldn't feel right hiding this either, not when the twins were always so excited to hear about her experiences.

"Mom...we have to tell them," Fiona said, turning to her mother. "It's not fair to Aunt Melinda if we don't. And I want the twins to know too."

Clearly outnumbered, Molly let out a resigned sigh.

* * *

Molly and Fiona arrived home almost seven hours later (two of those hours were spent waiting at the airport). Though exhausted, Molly invited Irene and Ned in for coffee. They both picked her up from the airport and she felt bad sending them back home. More than that, Molly suspected Irene tagged along because she wanted the details. Molly called in the morning just to say her family was safe again, but after everything she put Irene through, the best friends needed to have a long talk. She hoped she could give a short explanation and save the rest for the next day.

After saying a quick hello to Jack, Fiona went straight to bed despite the early hour. Molly, Irene and Ned sat around the kitchen table, each with a cup of coffee. She gave the quickest recap she could, but even with leaving out some details, it still took her over an hour.

"Well," Irene finally said, putting down her coffee. "After all that, I guess I have to forgive you for making Jack disappear. Though I'd appreciate some warning next time."

"Hopefully there won't be a 'next time,'" Ned commented.

"Right, that too."

Molly laughed, happy to be home with her best friends. "I'm so sorry, Irene. All of this happened so fast, and none of it was planned. We just did the best we could."

"I know, I'm glad everything worked out." Irene tilted her head at Molly. "We'll have to talk about your career, though. I did a little searching and was surprised by how often fans suspected you of being a witch. Fiona's website doesn't help either. We all need to decide a course of action on this."

Ned shrugged. "If you ask me, you should go with it. People love a good conspiracy, and according to this Noah guy, witches are big fans of your music."

"I don't think I'm ready for that yet," Molly confessed. She couldn't imagine talking about magic with strangers. "Melinda had the same suggestion, but right now I just...need to process. A lot happened this weekend."

"That's an understatement." Irene hesitated, looking at Molly with sympathy in her eyes. "How are you after all this? _Are_ you okay?"

She'd been expecting Irene's question. Molly sighed, not sure of the answer herself. "It feels like I lost him again," she whispered, her eyes becoming watery. "Seeing him...talking to him...you don't think it's possible, you know? Then I actually did and it felt exactly the same. Like nothing changed at all in more than a decade. It hurts so much..."

"I'm so sorry, Molly," Irene said, moving over to Molly's side. Molly leaned on her friend's shoulder, trying to hold the tears back and not succeeding. Meanwhile, Ned looked concerned but didn't know how to help.

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Molly shook her head, forcing the emotion down. She wondered if that would ever change. It hadn't in thirteen years, and now she was starting over again. "I-It's different now, I think," she said as she wiped away tears. "Since the accident, I...I could always feel him, even if I refused to admit it. Subconsciously I knew he was reaching out to me and the kids. This time...I got to say good-bye. Now I know he's finally at peace."

* * *

"Are we having company?"

Melinda froze in the middle of fluffing a couch pillow. Her husband stood in the doorway to the kitchen, his head tilted in confusion. She should've realized he would notice her getting ready for Molly and the kids. At this point she couldn't put it off any longer. "Um...yes, we are. You're fine though."

Ron still wore his dress shirt and slacks from work. A slender man with short brown hair, he was an accountant who wore a suit every day of the week. Many wondered how the unlikely pair fell in love, but to Melinda, it made perfect sense. She brought out his fun, adventurous side, while he kept her grounded with real-world logic. He did always kept an open mind, but Melinda knew this secret would test his limits.

"That's it? 'We're having company, you look fine'?" Ron exclaimed in disbelief. "Why the secrecy, Mel? Don't think I haven't worried about you since you've been back from New York. I'm so happy your play was a success, but something's off and I can't put my finger on it. Are you ever going to tell me what happened?"

That was an ironic question. Holding back a smile, Melinda patted the couch, indicating for him to sit. When he did, she let out a deep breath and braced for the worst. "Ron, that trip was...life-changing, in more ways than one." Because a producer saw the play, she'd been invited to audition for another show in Seattle. Rehearsals began next week. "Something did happen the weekend Molly and Fiona visited. It's...it's related to Fiona's website. You know, the one the girls have been obsessed with for years."

"Oh." Ron looked uncomfortable just talking about it. "Look, I love Fiona, but you have to admit her website's a little concerning. Either that or she should pursue a creative writing career. I've always told the girls it's all make-believe."

Melinda remembered this. Thinking about it now, she felt a little guilty for agreeing with Ron most of the time. "What if it wasn't make-believe?" she whispered.

"What?"

"Don't you wonder sometimes?" Melinda challenged. "Haven't you ever believed in things that would sound crazy to other people?"

To be fair, Ron gave the question serious thought. "Once," he admitted quietly. "I might've seen a ghost when I was camping with my friends. I just remember this transparent figure in the middle of the woods. Everyone else drank, but I didn't even have a beer because I was already nervous about camping. Never could explain what I saw – and never told a soul until now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Melinda asked, startled by her husband's confession.

"Same reason I didn't tell anyone else. I thought you wouldn't believe me."

"Mom! Dad!"

Maggie and Miranda ran down the stairs, their eyes wide with excitement as they continuously yelled for the parents. "Fi has a surprise for us!" Maggie exclaimed.

"She just messaged us on her website," Miranda bragged. While they were both preteens now, they held onto their hero-worship of Fiona. "She said we should wait in the living room!"

Ron gave Melinda a perplexed glance. "What does that mean? Are they here in Seattle?"

"Not just yet," Melinda replied cryptically.

As the girls joined their parents, the air by the door became wavy. Ron shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "What the..."

"It's the spell, Dad!" Miranda explained.

"The _what?"_

When the wavy air cleared, Molly, Fiona and Jack stood in the entryway. Each carried a small bag with enough clothes for the weekend. Molly and Jack seemed a little nervous, but Fiona smiled at her aunt. "You were right. It's much easier this way."

"_Fi!"_ The twins had been stunned speechless for only a moment, soon finding their voices and racing each other to hug their cousin. They almost knocked Fiona off her feet on impact.

"You really _are_ a witch!"

"Maggie, we already knew that! She conjured the dragon, didn't she?"

"But now everyone knows it!"

Laughing as she hugged Molly and Jack, Melinda glanced at Fiona. "Dragon?"

"I'll tell you later."

Melinda looked back at her husband. He'd gone paler than usual and couldn't form a coherent sentence. His eyes wide, he looked around the room in stunned silence, alternating between the unexpected guests and his wife.

This would be a long night.


End file.
